After a hermetic week for the embattled founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, the highly controversial figure has released a public statement, addressing many issues surrounding his saga, as well as name-checking fellow political casualties Pussy Riot.
As we all know by now, Pussy Riot is the all girl Russian political punk outfit who recently gained international headline attention after they performed a song of protest on Russian Orthodox Church grounds, calling out Russian president Putin.
In his statement to the media, Assange addresses other instances of political oppression, mentioning WikiLeaks military whistleblower Bradley Manning. “On Wednesday, Bradley Manning spent his 815th day of detention without trial — the legal maximum is 120 days… On Friday, a Russian band was sentenced to two years in jail for a political performance. There is unity in the oppression. There must be absolute unity and determination in the response.”
As he continues, Assange sends a succinct message to all those wanting his scalp, calling to them to end their ‘witch hunt’: “I ask President Obama to do the right thing. The United States must renounce its witch hunt against WikiLeaks… The United States must vow it will not seek to prosecute our staff or our supporters. The United States must pledge before the world that it will not pursue journalists for shining a light on the secret crimes of the powerful. There must be no more foolish thought of prosecuting any media organization, be it WikiLeaks or be it the New York Times.” Thank you to Pedestrian for the quotes.
Members of Pussy Riot were sentenced to 2 years in jail. Since the incident began, support has poured in from all areas of celebrity. It would appear that in this day and age, free speech is getting a bit too red hot to believe in!
