As extradition proceedings continue, WikiLeaks founder and activist Julian Assange was recently granted an allowance by the UK's Belmarsh Prison to marry longtime fiancée Stella Moris, the mother of two of Assange's children. Assange, if extradited to the US, could face up to 175 years behind bars.
While attending the 6th Whistleblower Meeting in Paris, France, John Shipton, Assange's father, insisted that it would be "honorable" of the French government to grant his son asylum, particularly after WikiLeaks published information vital to the European country's national security.

"I feel that France hasn’t attacked Julian over the last 12 years and consequently France is free to act in return for the information that WikiLeaks and Julian brought to France," Shipton told Sputnik France.

Assange's father highlighted that WikiLeaks exposed a number of incidents, including foreign meddling in French elections; US National Security Agency (NSA) and US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) surveillance of the French president's phone, and US spying on Jacques Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy, and François Hollande, between the years of 2006 and 2012.

"It would be an honorable thing for France to offer asylum to Julian Assange," Shipton stated.

Shipton's plea comes not long after 39 French lawmakers in Parliament's lower house issued a proposal for a resolution on granting Assange asylum.
"For more than 10 years, Julian Assange, a journalist awarded numerous prizes, has been deprived of his liberty. His crime? To have done work of truth and independence," tweeted French Deputy Cédric Villani on November 3, per an English language translation. "We demand that France grant him asylum, for the freedom of the press, for the respect of human rights."

The dozens of signees included Deputies Villani, Jean Lassalle, Erwan Balanant, Danièle Obono and Thierry Benoit.

Shipton told Sputnik that support is "essential" in getting Paris to grant Assange asylum.

He also acknowledged that the WikiLeaks co-founder has support from a number of lawmakers in several other governments.

"There is a cross-party group in the Bundestag, in the German parliament, there is a cross-party group containing 90 parliamentarians in the Greek parliament, there is a cross-party group in the UK parliament, there is a cross-party group in the Australian parliament," he said.

Shipton noted that the supporters intend to send an international delegation to the US "to advocate to end this persecution of Julian."

wiki@wikileaks-kr.org

Yoo Jin, reporter 다른기사 보기

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