The Socialist Movement of Ghana (SMG) has condemned attempts to “criminalise” Julian Paul Assange, founder of WikiLeaks and the practice of “investigative journalism.”
Assange is an Australian Editor, Publisher and Activist who founded WikiLeaks in 2006.
WikiLeaks came to international attention in 2010 when it published series of leaks provided by United States (US) Army intelligence analyst, Chelsea Manning.
A press statement signed by Mr. Justice Henaku, Director, International Relations Department, SMG, and issued to the Ghana News Agency in Accra on Wednesday said: “this effort has involved the abuse of judicial processes to extradite Julian Assange to the United States of America (USA) for allegedly leaking State secrets and endangering leaking the lives of operatives deployed in the illegal war in Iraq and the adventures of the USA and its allies in Afghanistan and elsewhere.”
The statement, therefore, called on the Ghana Journalists Association, the West African Media Foundation, organisation of lawyers, Civil Society Organisations and advocates of free expression and defenders of rights of people to declare unflinching solidarity with Assange.
“We are deeply conscious of the fact that the secrets with Assange and WikiLeaks allegedly released are evidence of the abuse of State power in the commission of crimes against humanity.
“We must come together to mobilise world opinion in support of the struggle to free Assange from the stranglehold of abuse of the right to free expression, we have a duty to ourselves and the world to defeat the forces against transparency,” it said.
The statement said: “It is indeed shocking that the perpetrators of these crimes are walking free and are even in some cases treated as distinguished statesmen and women while Assange is being hounded as a common criminal.”
“Countries have gone to war resulting in the deaths of millions of people under the cloak of restoring the democratic rights of citizens.
“The twist of values must be troubling for all those who are committed to the building of a new world based on the principles of probity, accountability and transparency,” it said.
On December 10, 2021, Britain’s Court of Appeal ruled that Assange should be extradited to the US to face the charges.
Assange has been confined in Belmarsh maximum-security prison in London since April 2019.
