On February 22, 2024, a court ruled that journalist Julian Assange, who is currently in
custody in the UK, can be extradited to the USA.
There he faces 175 years in prison.
Assange's only remaining option is to take his case to the European Court of Human Rights.
Julian Assange is being prosecuted in the USA because he published videos and documents on the
Wikileaks platform that document US war crimes.
In recent years, the German journalist Dr. Milosz Matuschek has repeatedly drawn attention to the fate of
Assange and the significance of his case for us all in numerous texts, podcasts and videos.
Quote: They want to make an example of Assange:
This, dear journalists, is what you will face if you dare to expose war crimes or other dirty deeds.
... In the following report, Dr. Matuschek explains why the case of Julian Assange in particular concerns us all
and could serve as a role model for journalists worldwide.
You have to imagine Wikileaks founder Julian Assange as a broken man today:
Several years in a confined space in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, followed by three years of solitary confinement
in Belmarsh Prison*, which according to the UN Special Rapporteur, Nils Melzer, was a case of psychological torture;
and, last but not least, an endless, grueling show trial for extradition to the USA, which must now be considered lost.
In legal terms, the legal process in England is almost exhausted, and after a final appeal the only remaining option is to
go to Strasbourg, before the European Court of Human Rights.
In the USA, the final trial is looming, the charge 175 years in prison for espionage, among other things.
It would be a death sentence for Assange.
How much can a person endure?
But Julian Assange must also be seen as a symbol, as an indicator of freedom in the West.
And in this function as a symbol, it is unbroken.
We can read the state of press freedom from the state of Assange.
And this is where the US and UK governments are making the most spectacular mistake of all:
They are currently turning Assange into a martyr and themselves into executors and executioners.
The way they are treating Julian Assange - for the entire world to see - is an oath of
allegiance to the Western community of values:
Humanism, human rights, the rule of law are being sacrificed for the sake of power politics.
And governments around the world are keeping quiet.
German Foreign Minister Baerbock, who has a background in international law and is therefore familiar with the concept of
torture, wanted to stand up for Assange before the election.
Now that it is in government, it suddenly no longer sees any need for action.
They want to make an example of Assange:
This, dear journalists, is what you will face if you dare to expose war crimes or other dirty deeds that
people would rather see hidden behind the barrier of the Arcana Imperii, the state secrets.
The war criminals in Afghanistan and Iraq, right up to the top echelons of the US and UK
leadership, remain unchallenged to this day.
Wars of aggression are personally less risky than critical reporting on them.
Anyone who wants to fulfill their role as a journalist as radically transparent as Assange in the
future will have to be labeled an enemy of the state and will be considered virtually outlawed.
The Assange case is the scandal of our time, the most visible brutal injustice perpetrated on an
individual, the greatest possible betrayal of our own values.
The more obviously Julian Assange is turned into a martyr for freedom of the press, the clearer it becomes to everyone that the
field of democracy and the rule of law has been abandoned here.
In a truly free West, there can be no dissidents by definition;
Anyone who tries to hunt down others for publishing true facts has obviously switched sides
and swapped democracy for a form of feudal rule.
Anyone who acts in this way is acting out of panic, helplessness and fear of clarification and accountability.
We should all remember what Emile Zola already knew when he published his famous J'accuse*:
The truth is on its way and nothing will stop it.