There is not much comparison between the situation of the multi-millionaire tennis player Novak Djokovic and his fellow detainees in the Park Hotel, Carlton (in Victoria, Australia.) Petitioners for the release of the long term detainees and those for Djokovic have coincided over the last day but probably have little in common.
Novak is not forgotten by anyone in his current crisis, which he is free to end at any point if he is willing to leave the country. That is not a problem. His parents are reported to have made statements to the effect that he is being crucified and that the current situation is politically motivated.
In this situation another prisoner has been forgotten. Julian Assange spent 7 years in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden and the United States, where he would no doubt be tortured. His "crime" was, as a journalist, to expose war crimes. Unfortunately they were war crimes on "our" side. Since his expulsion from his 7 year stay in the Embassy, he has been in Belmarsh prison, and recently suffered a stroke. Julian Assange really is a political prisoner, and one who does not have any options left to him. He has suffered and continues to suffer, immensely.
Compared with the plight of Julian Assange, the Novak Djokovic situation is not a big deal at all. Yet no-one is making any noise about Julian at all, although it is an opportunity to highlight Julian Assange's situation, which is dire.
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admin
Sat, 2022-01-08 04:19
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Tasmanian journalist Dean Yates: Make Julian an election issue
Tasmanian journalist Dean Yates describes in What I Got Wrong About Julian Assange (7/1/2022) in Consortium Newswrites that he now regrets having had repeated media slurs against Julian Assange, in a Crikey.com article he wrote about Julian Assange on 6 August 2020.
Dean Yates acknowledges that he "wrote that Assange dumped the Iraq and Afghan war logs on the internet without redacting names."
Of this he writes "I was wrong and lazy in repeating that slur which appeared whenever you Googled Assange’s name. That must make it true, right?"
Whilst two of Julian Assange's Australian supporters had tried to correct him, Dean Yates had brushed them off.
Dean Yates continued,
He then describes Julian Asange's laborious and painstaking efforts to redact from any Wikileaks publication, anything that could either help reveal the source of the leak or endanger any life.
Dean Yates points out that no one has been held to account for the the ruin that the United States' brought to Afghanistan, Iraq and other Middle Eastern countries, whilst Julian Assange has been tortured and imprisoned for revealing to the world the truth about those illegal wars. He concludes:
At candobetter.net, we have also been, since at least prior to the 2019 elections, trying to have the issue of Julian Assange put to voters at Federal elections and also trying to have the issue discussed of the floor of Parliament.
Should a substantial number of those Australians who have also been campaigning for Julian Assange get behind Dean Yates' proposal, then we I think we stand every chance of making a decisive difference in the campaign to free Julian Assange at the next Federal election.
However, given the changes made to our electoral system by the ruling Liberal/Labor duoply, it will be much harder for candidates who support Julian Assange or who, in any other other, way oppose the US and Australian military-industrial complexes, to stand. Only parties with more than 1500 members can stand candidates. So, other than a number of Greens candidates, who have spoken up for Julian Assange, we could have little choice, that is, unless the Sustainable Australia Party can be persuaded to support Julian Assange.
Certainly we should also make the repeal of those anti-democratic laws another issue for that election.
admin
Tue, 2022-01-25 00:15
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Stella Moris: Julian Assange wins appeal, but remains imprisoned
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