Call comes after British court ruled that WikiLeaks founder may be allowed to appeal his extradition to the U.S.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today again urged the Justice Department’s to drop its efforts to extradite and prosecute Julian Assange for exposing war crimes committed by U.S. forces in Iraq.
That call by the Washington, D.C., based civil rights organization comes after a British court ruled that the WikiLeaks founder will be allowed to appeal his extradition to the U.S. unless American authorities show whether he might face new charges carrying the death penalty and how he is protected by the First Amendment.
In a statement, CAIR Deputy Executive Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell said:
“We again call on the Justice Department to drop the Trump-era prosecution of Julian Assange. These ongoing attempts to extradite Assange chill free speech, undermine freedom of the press, and harm America’s image around the world.
“It is simply unconscionable to prosecute Assange for helping to expose war crimes committed during the U.S. occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. Why is releasing video footage of Iraqi civilians being slaughtered worthy of prosecution, but killing those Iraqi civilians is not similarly worthy of prosecution?
“The Justice Department should prosecute the war criminals that WikiLeaks exposed over ten years ago, not Julian Assange.”
He noted that CAIR previously call on the Biden administration to drop the charges against Assange.
BACKGROUNDER:
In 2010, WikiLeaks released government materials related to American military operations in the Middle East. The release included video showing American helicopter pilots in Iraq making jokes as they opened fire on a group of non-combatants that included civilians and journalists, as well as on Iraqis who came to their aid, killing numerous civilians and seriously wounding two children.
During the Obama Administration, the Justice Department did not pursue charges against Assange for his role in receiving and publishing the documents “on the grounds that what Assange and WikiLeaks did was too similar to journalistic activities protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.”
According to Reuters, “Trump administration officials stepped up public criticism of Assange and WikiLeaks only weeks after taking office in January 2017 and subsequently filed a series of increasingly harsh criminal charges accusing Assange of participating in a hacking conspiracy.”
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CONTACT: CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell, 404-285-9530, e-Mitchell@cair.com; CAIR Government Affairs Director Robert McCaw, 202-742-6448, rmccaw@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, ihooper@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Coordinator Ismail Allison, 202-770-6280, iallison@cair.com