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Support Assange! Demo 08/10/22

LONDON FREELANCE Branch urges members to consider attending the demonstration in solidarity with Julian Assange on Saturday 8 October at 1pm, and to encourage your colleagues to go. Julian faces extradition to the US for trial under the Espionage Act for his revelations via WikiLeaks on war crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Photo: Matt Salusbury

A supporter wears a Julian Assange mask at a demonstration in support of him in May 2022

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LFB passed a motion at its September meeting urging members to go to this event. For background to the Assange extradition case and its implications for journalism, see here. See also the NUJ's call to attend the demonstration.

The demonstration takes the form of a human chain around the Houses of Parliament. The organisers estimate they need 5000 to achieve this. At the time of writing they had over 3800 pledges from people to form part of this chain, so they need another 1200. Details are here.

Assange's legal team has submitted to the Supreme Court his grounds for appeal against then Home Secretary’s decision to confirm his extradition. See our earlier report on this, which has more background on Julian's case and its implications for journalism .

In August, Assange's lawyers also brought a lawsuit against former CIA director Mike Pompeo and Spanish security firm UC Global for spying on their conversations with Julian Assange while he was in the Embassy of Ecuador in London.

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