London: Hundreds rally for Assange outside Belmarsh Prison

international | rights, freedoms and repression | other press Tuesday October 01, 2019 22:58 by 1 of indy

The World Socialists WebSite has carried a report on the protest outside the prison in support of Assange
A large crowd rallied outside Belmarsh Prison in London on Saturday as jailed WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange received the Gavin MacFadyen Award 2019—the only journalism prize given by whistle-blowers. Assange’s father John Shipton accepted the award on his son’s behalf.

Protesters march towards the Belmarsh Prison entrance

Saturday’s rally was the first outside Belmarsh Prison since District Judge Vanessa Baraitser ruled September 13 that Assange would not be released despite the end of his sentence on a trumped-up bail infringement. He is now being held in remand over a US extradition request and faces Espionage Act charges carrying a 175-year prison term.

Emmy Butlin from the Julian Assange Defence Committee opened Saturday’s award ceremony just metres from the prison’s maximum-security walls and razor-wire fences. She told those assembled that the award was “an amazing opportunity to honour Julian Assange, unfairly imprisoned behind those walls.”

The award was delivered by Eileen Chubb, a whistle-blower who led efforts to expose criminal abuse in the social care sector. Chubb is founder and director of Compassion in Care and was co-founder of “The Whistler” with the late investigative journalist Gavin MacFadyen, a friend and mentor of Assange.
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“This man has committed no crime and his detention is a stain on the UK justice system. As a whistle-blower, I know only too well that injustice, abuse and all the wrongs in this world can only prevail if silence prevails, if there is no one to bear witness and there is no one to publish the truth. This year’s award also shines a light on silence—the very opposite of the truly great journalism of Julian Assange.”
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Accepting the award, John Shipton said, “Julian’s contribution is unparalleled. He’s benefitted many, many people the world over, particularly exposing war crimes or Trafigura dumping poisonous waste and destroying coastal regions in east Africa, or the cables which allowed us to see the sordid manipulations that diplomats go through to sell down their populations to enrich the United States....

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Emmy Butlin