London, 23 February 2020 – Pirate MEP Markéta Gregorová will take part in an open court hearing tomorrow on the extradition of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange to the US in London. In the US, Assange should face charges of nearly two dozen crimes, including the unlawful disclosure of secret documents, for which he faces a collective sentence of up to 175 years.
According to Gregorová, there are at least two reasons for observing the court. “First, I want to see his health by myself. Irrespective of the nature of this hearing, we still live in countries with the rule of law and in a democratic system where prisoners have their rights. I do not want to rely on incomplete and often contradictory information from various sources, I want to see everything with my own eyes,” says Gregorová, who in the same spirit last summer took a footage of Russian soldiers as they were moving Georgian state borders. According to several sources, Julian Assange might be even in danger for life.
The second fundamental reason for Gregorová is the independence of the whole process. “I want to see how the court proceeds so that I can disprove any misinformation that will surely spread – not only – in the Czech Republic. At the same time, preserving the objectivity of the court is important in such a controversial and politicized case. This is also the reason for the presence of external observers,” explains Gregorová.
“I realize why the potential US lawsuit is so controversial. And Assange should not be a model or an idol. At the same time, he should not be a model case of how whistleblowers are treated either. Precisely because this case is being massively watched, it is important to set a precedent for when the public interest in having information about government activities outweighs the danger of having them – a danger that governments themselves have exposed their citizens to,” adds Gregorová.
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