The following Open Letter has been sent to all 40 members of the Bring Julian Assange Home Parliamentary Support Group (Julian Assange Parliamentary Support Group). It asks those members to be seen to be making an attempt, once more, to finally have the issue of Julian Assange debated on the floor of the Australian Parliament.

End Parliament's Gag on discussion about Assange - James Sinnamon speaks at the Vigil for Julian Assange, Friday 10 Feb 2023

Dear Andrew Wilkie,

I write to you because you are listed as a supporter/member of the Bring Julian Assange Home Parliamentary Support Group (Julian Assange Support Group). [1]

This email is to request of you, as a matter of urgency, to try, tomorrow, in the last sitting day of Parliament for another 18 days, to finally make the Australian Parliament properly and fully debate the issue of the imprisonment of Julian Assange. I ask you to move for the Suspension of Standing Orders to allow the Foreshadowed Motion that Independent Tasmanian Member Andrew Wilkie unsuccessfully attempted to put on 2 December 2021, or an updated version of that motion.

I explain further below why, in spite of the difficulties that the movers of that procedural motion will most likely face, if moved, it will enormously help outside grass-roots campaigners and also still help hold to account this government for its abandonment of Julian Assange and each of those MPs who may, once more, use his/her vote to prevent discussion of Julian Assange in our Parliament.

Assange could face kangaroo court in the US, thence imprisonment in solitary confinement for the rest of his life

As you are well aware, the United States government is attempting to put Julian Assange behind bars in solitary confinement for the rest of his life in conditions worse than those he is now being made to endure in Belmarsh Prison.

To accomplish this, they intend to make Julian Assange face trial, not before the United States Supreme Court, nor before any of the United States district courts, but before a kangaroo court, otherwise known as the Grand Jury of the Eastern District of Virgina.

Almost certainly, this kangaroo court will find Assange, who is not even a US citizen, guilty of "endangering the national security of the United States" in violation of the 2017 Espionage Act, and will almost certainly sentence Assange to imprisonment in solitary confinement for the rest of his life.

How any Member of the House or how any Senator, who is truly in Parliament to serve his/her constituency, could not also feel disgust at the conduct of the governments of the UK and the US and how they could not want to do everything possible in their power to make those governments free Julian Assange and cease their persecution of him, is beyond me.

Albanese could, if he chose to. make the UK end its illegal imprisonment of Assange today

As I have said, on a number of previous occasions, I believe that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese could, today, make the British government end its illegal imprisonment of Julian Assange. He could phone UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and say to him, "You are illegally imprisoning an Australian citizen. Release him now!"

In the unlikely event that Sunak were not to comply immediately, Albanese would have recourse to the International Criminal Court (ICC) which would almost certainly order Sunak to free Assange. The PM would also have recourse to the United Nations and to appeals to international public opinion which is overwhelmingly on the side of Julian Assange.

I believe that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese knows this. I believe that he knows that he could make the UK free Julian Assange today and could also make the US desist in its efforts to extradite Assange. I believe he knows that he could free Assange but has chosen not to.

FOI disproves Albanese's claim to have been in touch with Biden over Assange

Even if I am incorrect in my view that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese could, with little effort, bring about Assange's freedom today, the fact remains, contrary to what he said to independent MP Monique Ryan during Question Time on 30 November last year, a Freedom Of Information (FOI) release has revealed that neither he nor the Attorney General Mark Dreyfus have made any contact with Joe Biden nor any other officials of the US government about Julian Assange.

I am expecting independent MP Monique Ryan to question the Prime Minister about this discrepancy during Question Time tomorrow. Whilst I expect that the Prime Minister will momentarily be made to suffer some embarrassment, I think a lot more than just the two minutes that is allowed for each question time exchange, is necessary to cause the Prime Minster to finally act to free Assange, or else, to hold Mr. Albanese to acccount should he continue to refuse to do so.

Much more than the occasional 2 minute long Question Time exchange, 90 second statement or presentation of a petition is needed

As I mentioned above, I believe this can be best accomplished by attempting, once again, to move the foreshadowed motion that Andrew Wilkie tried to move in December 2021. That foreshadowed motion is:

That the House:

(1) notes that:

(a) Walkley Award winning Australian journalist, Mr Julian Assange, remains incarcerated in HMP Belmarsh in the United Kingdom, despite a British Court earlier this year finding that Mr Assange could not be extradited to the United States of America for health reasons;

(b) the US continues to pursue Mr Assange and has recently been back in court in the UK appealing the earlier decision to refuse the extradition;

(c) the reason for the US's determination to extradite Mr Assange is limited to Wikileaks' exposes in 2010 and 2011 of US war crimes and other misconduct in Iraq and Afghanistan, and in Guantanamo Bay, including the release of the 'Collateral Murder' video in which a US helicopter in Iraq gunned down innocent civilians including journalists;

(d) recent revelations in the media show the Central Intelligence Agency developed plans to abduct and assassinate Mr Assange; and

(e) the continuing incarceration of Mr Assange, and any extradition to the US, would not only be a grave injustice but a severe threat to his health and life; and

(2) calls on the Prime Minister to:

(a) speak directly with his counterparts in the US and UK to bring an end to this madness, including the US dropping all charges against Mr Assange and the UK allowing his immediate release; and

(b) commit to not allow the extradition of Mr Assange to the US from Australia.

What if the Speaker again rules that the motion to Suspend Standing Orders is lost?

Whilst it seems more likely to me that the procedural motion for the Suspension of Standing Orders to allow that motion motion to be put, will again be defeated, this would at least, in contrast to how very little has been said in Parliament for the past 12 years about Julian Assange, show people across the world that there are members of the House of Representatives who want to speak out on the floor of our Parliament for Julian Assange.

Should the Speaker rule that the procedural motion has again been defeated, this time, call for a division. That way the public will know if a majority of the Members of Parliament truly voted to deny a voice to those who want to speak out for Assange. We will also know the names of those MPs so that their constituents, should they wish, will be able to hold those MPs to account at the next federal election.

I therefore urge you and other members of the Julian Assange Parliamentary Support Group to act to make our Parliament finally properly discuss Julian Assange.

Thank you for your attention.

Your faithfully,

James Sinnamon