Australian MP to visit Julian Assange in prison
Ahmed Kaballo
Press TV, London
If supporters of Julian Assange were looking for parliamentarian support to free him, they probably did not envision that it would take an MP from Australia to be one to visit the Wikileaks co-founder and lobby for his release.
But as it so happens that is precisely the case and Andrew Wilkie, an MP from Australia, is making a more than 10,000 mile trip this weekend to Belmarsh maximum security prison in South East London, to be the first parliamentarian to visit Julian Assange since he was detained last April.
Assange is currently held alongside some of the UK’s most infamous criminals for the relatively minor crime of skipping bale, on rape charges that have now been dropped by Swedish prosecutors.
He has also now been indicted by the United States on 18 charges – 17 under the Espionage Act – for conspiracy to receive, obtain and disclose classified diplomatic and military documents, but many fear that his real crime was exposing US war crimes to the world and for that alone he should be supported by all people including left-wing parliamentarians .
Some will wonder why an MP from Australia can make the trip from literally the other side of the planet to not only visit Assange but to also lobby for his release. Meanwhile here in the UK British parliamentarians seem reluctant to speak out for Assange and unwilling to visit a man considered by many as the world's most famous political prisoner.
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