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https://www.sff.org.au/program/browse/ithaka

BY Evan Craighead

As extradition proceedings continue, WikiLeaks founder and activist Julian Assange was recently granted an allowance by the UK's Belmarsh Prison to marry longtime fiancée Stella Moris, the mother of two of Assange's children. Assange, if extradited to the US, could face up to 175 years behind bars.

While attending the 6th Whistleblower Meeting in Paris, France, John Shipton, Assange's father, insisted that it would be "honorable" of the French government to grant his son asylum, particularly after WikiLeakspublished information vital to the European country's national security. 

"I feel that France hasn’t attacked Julian over the last 12 years and consequently France is free to act in return for the information that WikiLeaks and Julian brought to France," Shipton told Sputnik France. 

Assange's father highlighted that WikiLeaks exposed a number of incidents, including foreign meddling in French elections; US National Security Agency (NSA) and US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)surveillance of the French president's phone, and US spying on Jacques Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy, and François Hollande, between the years of 2006 and 2012.

"It would be an honorable thing for France to offer asylum to Julian Assange," Shipton stated.

 John #Shipton : «La France n’a pas attaqué #Julian pendant les dernières années difficiles, donc la France est libre d’agir en échange des informations que #WikiLeaks et Julian ont apportées à la France. Ce serait honorable pour la #France d’offrir [l’asile] à Julian #Assange» pic.twitter.com/ceZ7qTARua

— Oxana_Sputnik (@kastor_sputnik) November 13, 2021

Shipton's plea comes not long after 39 French lawmakers in Parliament's lower house issued a proposal for a resolution on granting Assange asylum.

"For more than 10 years, Julian Assange, a journalist awarded numerous prizes, has been deprived of his liberty. His crime? To have done work of truth and independence," tweeted French Deputy Cédric Villani on November 3, per an English language translation. "We demand that France grant him asylum, for the freedom of the press, for the respect of human rights." 

The dozens of signees included Deputies Villani, Jean Lassalle, Erwan Balanant, Danièle Obono and Thierry Benoit. 

Depuis plus de 10 ans, #JulianAssange, journaliste récompensé par de nombreux prix, est privé de liberté. Son crime ? Avoir fait œuvre de vérité & d'indépendance. Nous réclamons que la France lui accorde l'asile, pour la liberté de la presse, pour le respect des droits humains ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/C2iQj5dB7L

— Cédric Villani (@VillaniCedric) November 3, 2021

Shipton told Sputnik that support is "essential" in getting Paris to grant Assange asylum.

He also acknowledged that the WikiLeaks co-founder has support from a number of lawmakers in several other governments.

"There is a cross-party group in the Bundestag, in the German parliament, there is a cross-party group containing 90 parliamentarians in the Greek parliament, there is a cross-party group in the UK parliament, there is a cross-party group in the Australian parliament," he said.

Shipton noted that the supporters intend to send an international delegation to the US "to advocate to end this persecution of Julian."

Read more:

https://sputniknews.com/20211115/assanges-father-would-be-honorable-for-france-to-offer-asylum-to-wikileaks-founder-1090760284.html

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As we await the High Court decision on Julian Assange, join us Friday at 9am EST, 2pm GMT, and 1am AEDT for a deep dive into the Espionage & Official Secrets Acts and their impact on the Assange case.

As a ruling by the High Court in London is imminent in the U.S. appeal seeking to overturn an order not to extradite imprisoned WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange, we look at the High Court’s options and examine the parallel history of the U.K. Official Secrets Act and the U.S. Espionage Act, under which Assange has been charged.

Our guests are James Goodale, who was The New York Times counsel during the Pentagon Papers case, and CN legal analyst Alexander Mercouris.  Watch it here live with your hosts Joe Lauria and Elizabeth Vos. Produced by Cathy Vogan.

SEE MORE:

https://consortiumnews.com/2021/12/03/watch-new-cn-live-the-espionage-act-julian-assange/

Lord Chief Justice Ian Burnett, the judge who will soon decide Julian Assange’s fate, is a close personal friend of Sir Alan Duncan, who as foreign minister arranged Assange’s eviction from the Ecuadorian embassy. 

The two have known each other since their student days at Oxford in the 1970s, when Duncan called Burnett “the Judge.” Burnett and his wife attended Duncan’s birthday dinner at a members-only London club in 2017, when Burnett was a judge at the court of appeal.

Now the most powerful judge in England and Wales, Burnett will soon rule on Assange’s extradition case. The founder of WikiLeaks faces life imprisonment in the U.S.. 

In his recently published diaries, In The Thick of It, Duncan wrote in July 2017: “My good friend and Oxford contemporary Ian Burnett is announced as the next Lord Chief Justice.” 

He continued: “At Oxford we always called him ‘the Judge’ and they always called me ‘Prime Minister’, but Ian’s the one who’s got there.” 

In an emailed response to Declassified, Lord Chief Justice Burnett confirmed he and Duncan have been “friends since university days”.

Duncan studied politics and economics at St John’s College, Oxford from 1976-79, while Burnett studied jurisprudence at Pembroke College in the same period.

‘Miserable Little Worm’ 

Duncan’s diaries also show that as foreign minister he spoke privately to Lord Chief Justice Burnett in May 2019, a conversation that was not logged in government records. Burnett briefed him on a dinner he’d had with then Prime Minister Theresa May two days before. 

But Duncan told Declassified: “There was nothing that was required to be ‘logged in government records’.” He and Burnett both said nothing related to their roles as a minister or judge was discussed. 

Duncan served as foreign minister for Europe and the Americas from 2016-19. He was the key official in the U.K. government campaign to force Assange from the embassy. 

As minister, Duncan did not hide his opposition to Julian Assange, calling him a “miserable little worm” in Parliament in March 2018. 

In his diaries, Duncan refers to the “supposed human rights of Julian Assange.” He admits to arranging a Daily Mail hit piece on Assange that was published the day after the journalist’s arrest in April 2019. 

Duncan watched U.K. police pulling the WikiLeaks publisher from the Ecuadorian embassy via a live-feed in the Operations Room at the top of the Foreign Office. 

He later admitted he was “trying to keep the smirk off [his] face” and hosted drinks at his parliamentary office for the team involved in the eviction.

Duncan then flew to Ecuador to meet President Lenín Moreno in order to “say thank you” for handing over Assange. Duncan reported he gave Moreno “a beautiful porcelain plate from the Buckingham Palace gift shop.” 

“Job done,” he added.

‘Generous Present’

Duncan’s diaries also highlight a birthday dinner held for him in June 2017 that was attended by Burnett and his wife. The dinner, held at the private Beefsteak club in London the day before the general election, was a “generous present from David Ross,” Duncan noted. 

READ MORE:

https://consortiumnews.com/2021/12/02/assange-judge-longtime-friend-of-minister-who-orchestrated-arrest/

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FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW √√√√√√√√√√√√√√√√!!!