Free Julian Assange

Published on 10 October 2022

Council calls on Australian Government to intervene

Darebin Council affirms our support for freedom of expression, freedom of the press and protection for whistle-blowers in all jurisdictions.

WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange was a resident of Darebin and lived for a short period in the suburb of Thornbury. As such our community expresses keen interest in his health, wellbeing and human rights.

We are gravely concerned that on 17 June 2022 the United Kingdom approved the extradition of Mr Assange to the United States. Mr Assange currently has one last chance to be allowed to appeal the judicial order to the High Court in London, with a ruling expected this month. If his request is rejected, Mr Assange will be extradited to the United States within four weeks.

We are concerned as to what this would mean for Mr Assange and his rights to humane conditions of imprisonment, to freedom from cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment, and to a fair trial, as enshrined in international human rights treaties ratified by Australia, the UK and US.

Beyond his particular case, we also affirm our support for freedom of expression, freedom of the press and protection for whistle-blowers in all jurisdictions, which we note the Australian Government also supports and seeks to promote and protect.

We call on the Australian Government to undertake urgent diplomatic intervention to free Mr Assange and have the charges against him dropped.

We believe this would honour Australia’s commitment to modelling respect for and championing human rights.