Thread by @ProgIntl

LIVE NOW:

Watch the Sydney sitting of the #BelmarshTribunal to #FreeAssange.

Join us as we live tweet from the Great Hall, University of Sydney.

Tag @AlboMP, Prime Minister of Australia, and Joe Biden, @POTUS.

Thread👇

#BelmarshTribunal #FreeAssange

youtube.com/live/fsun8e4E4…

Aunty Nadeena Dixon, a Gadigal, Yuin and Wiradjuri woman, welcomes us to unceded Gadigal Country.

#AlwaysWasAlwaysWillBe

The Progressive International pays respects to the Traditional Owners of the land and their Elders, past and present.

We acknowledge their ongoing resistance to the destructive forces of colonialism and their sustained connection to water and land.

Sovereignty was never ceded.

MARY KOSTAKIDAS

“Coming to you from Sydney University, home of the Foundation which conferred on Julian Assange the Sydney Peace Medal for his exceptional courage and conviction that truth matters and justice depends on it.” - @MaryKostakidis

#BelmarshTribunal #FreeAssange

“For revealing how power works, what governments get up to…and the tools used to deceive citizens, his punishment has been brutal,” says @MaryKostakidis
 
The result of being pursued by the world’s most powerful govt, acc. to former UN Rapporteur @NilsMelzer, amounts to torture.

MARK DAVIS:

“Emphatically, Julian Assange redacted the most dangerous material from the Afghan War Logs,” says Davis.

“I was with him the evening he did so; He redacted 10,000 names…”

#BelmarshTribunal #FreeAssange

KERRY O’BRIEN

Refers to Australia’s prestigious @Walkleys who awarded Assange for his outstanding contribution to journalism.

Quoting the judges:

“Assange took a brave, determined and independent stand for freedom of speech and transparency … and the public’s right to know.”

KERRY O’BRIEN

“The longer Assange remains caught in the web of US legal procedure without demonstrable and effective intervention by the Australian Government to bring him home, the more the Australian Government’s credibility will suffer. "

#BelmarshTribunal #FreeAssange

JENNIFER ROBINSON

“Julian faces 175 yrs in prison for committing acts of journalism, for the same publications for which he has won awards the world over,” says @Suigenerisjen

“The @NYTimes and @WashingtonPost made clear, the indictment criminalises
public interest journalism.”

JENNIFER ROBINSON

“The Freedom of the Press Foundation has called (Julian’s prosecution) the most terrifying threat to free speech in the 21 st century,” says @Suigenerisjen

“And it is."

#BelmarshTribunal #FreeAssange

JOHN KIRIAKOU

“The American Government is lying about Julian Assange. That’s the bottom line,” says @JohnKiriakou.

“… the Espionage Act is unconstitutionally broad and vague (and) the freedom of the press is resting on this case.”

JOHN KIRIAKOU

“If they can prosecute Assange they can prosecute anybody,” says @JohnKiriakou

When they say they’ll treat Julian fairly, it’s a lie. The Eastern District of Virginia Court is made up of CIA, Dept. of Homeland Security, Govt. agencies. Julian won’t stand a chance.

DEAN YATES:

“My staff? Killed on my watch,” says Yates.

Lawyers from @Reuters tried to get a copy of the tape from the Pentagon so we could better protect our staff in Iraq.

“They refused … Then Assange published video of the entire attack.”

#BelmarshTribunal #FreeAssange

DEAN YATES

“Collateral Murder is pure truth-telling,” says Yates.

“Yet the US didn’t prosecute the men who pulled the trigger or anyone else in the chain of command … The real criminals are the architects of the invasion – Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld.”

#BelmarshTribunal

KELLIE TRANTER

“Julian is a moral innovator; he made moral gains which had an immense effect on human life,”
says @KellieTranter

“Posterity will pay Julian the highest honour for putting into the world the things that we most value: truth, transparency and justice.”

KELLIE TRANTER

“@AlboMP Goes to Washington should be the story of an Australian prime minister standing up for truth and fairness and the rights of a citizen, securing the release of a person who has put his life on the line for those same values for the benefit of (all).”

BOB CARR

“The American involved in the exposure of American war crimes walks free … The Aussie is still being pursued,” says @BobJCarr

“These are war crimes and we know about them … because Julian Assange published them.”

#BelmarshTribunal #FreeAssange

@BobJCarr finds it “utterly repugnant” that “an Australian is going to be punished because of extraterritorial reach by the Americans.”

“Australians wouldn’t accept it if a nation like China or India reached out to extradite Assange because he’d offended their laws.”

KAREN PERCY

@PercyKaren, president of Australia’s media union @withMEAA, says that Julian’s case “is fundamentally an issue of press freedom.”

#BelmarshTribunal #FreeAssange

JOSH WILSON MP

“Without question, it's time for the persecution, prosecution and incarceration of Assange to come to an end,” says @Josh4Freo

“The parliamentary friendship group has called upon the US government to end the extradition process and set Julian Assange free."

DR. MONIQUE RYAN MP

“We’ll continue to speak to our own Government and hold them to account,” says @Mon4Kooyong

“As members of the Australian Govt, we need to do what we can to protect the freedom and rights of all Australians, but particularly those who speak truth to power."

SENATOR DAVID SHOEBRIDGE

“It should never be a crime to tell the truth,” says @DavidShoebridge

#BelmarshTribunal #FreeAssange

SENATOR DAVID SHOEBRIDGE

“Assange is a case study in how this country treats whistleblowers,” says @DavidShoebridge

“What we’re seeing has moved beyond neglect into an institutionalised attack, with the aim of silencing not just Julian but anyone who dares follow his example.”

BRIDGET ARCHER MP

“The ongoing persecution of Assange offends my sense of natural justice, human dignity and fairness,” says @BridgetArcherMP

“There can never be a legal solution to this case. It’s inherently political.”

#BelmarshTribunal #FreeAssange

.@YanisVaroufakis calls on @AlboMP to “move heaven and earth to unsully the bad name of previous Australian govts that stood idly by while one of its citizens was taken to the cleaners by recalcitrant, violent American administrators. Mr. Albanese, free Julian. Bring him home.”

BERNARD COLLAERY

"As with Witness K in Australia, speaking truth is Julian’s alleged crime. Detaining Julian Assange with the stated purpose of shutting down @WikiLeaks is precisely the conduct, namely hostage taking, that the United States pressed the world to outlaw."

BERNARD COLLAERY to Australian Prime Minister @AlboMP, who is “in his prime.”

“Mr Albanese, don’t leave an awful blemish on your legacy.”

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE.

#BelmarshTribunal #FreeAssange

DAVID MCBRIDE

“The truth is, we will win this and in five years everyone will say they were here,” says @MurdochCadell.

#BelmarshTribunal #FreeAssange

DAVID MCBRIDE

“We are laying claim to truth and to values that we can be proud of,” says @MurdochCadell

“We are gonna take Australia back from the creeps… We will win because we are right.”

#BelmarshTribunal #FreeAssange

ALISON BROINOWSKI

“The Australian people are getting tired of waiting for some action on this case, and would like to see the case brought to a speedy end."

#BelmarshTribunal #FreeAssange

KYLIE MOORE-GILBERT

“The fate of Julian matters because it has strong echoes of what I went through: psychological torture,” says @KMooreGilbert.

The Australian Govt. “moved mountains to secure my release … I call on them to demonstrate the same resolutenss for Julian.”

STELLA ASSANGE

“There is no pretence that what is happening here is a legal case,” says @Stella_Assange.

“It’s a political case.”

#BelmarshTribunal #FreeAssange

STELLA ASSANGE

“Australia has the power to bring Julian home,” says @Stella_Assange.

“@AlboMP, more than anyone, holds Julian's fate in his hands. I ask Prime Minister Albanese to take Julian's fate in his hands and bring him home to our kids, to me. End his suffering."

Thank you to this evening’s speakers, partners, organisers and everyone who joined the fifth #BelmarshTribunal to #FreeAssange.

Please join us in solidarity over the coming weeks in the following actions 👇

#BelmarshTribunal #FreeAssange

AUSTRALIA: Time is of the essence for Julian Assange and press freedom.

By meeting with your local MP you can help secure Julian’s release, one MP at a time.

Join the simple step-by-step MEET YOUR MP Program to build momentum to #FreeAssange.

action.assangecampaign.org.au/meet-your-mp-p…

Anything to Say?

Take a stand next to Julian Assange, @Snowden + Chelsea Manning.

Have your say when @Davide_Dormino’s life-sized sculpture comes to Naarm (Melbourne) and Gadigal land (Sydney), Australia.

With the artist / speakers.

Dates and location below.

#FreeAssange