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Pirate MEPs send open letter to Boris Johnson, fear Assange could die in the US

GAELLE LEWYLLIE

Brussels, 22/04/2022 – The Pirate Party Members of the European Parliament penned an open letter to the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, calling on him to not extradite Julian Assange to the United States. According to Pirates, Assange is facing the death penalty and Vladimir Putin could take advantage of the entire situation in a psychological war against the European Union. The Pirates have supported the WikiLeaks founder since the beginning of his trial.

Markéta Gregorová, MEP and author of the letter, explains:

“We believe that the extradition of Julian Assange would inflict a heavy blow to the credibility of our proclamations, that there is a struggle between freedom and tyranny in Ukraine. Such developments play into the hands of Putin’s long-term disinformation strategy: to weaken the value predominance of the West, to warn of its transgressions against its own claims, and to destabilize Western democracies.”

In the open letter, the Pirates point out that millions of democratically spirited people around the world stand behind the WikiLeaks founder. By extraditing Assange to his declared enemies, the British government would disappoint these people’s enthusiasm for a united and freedom-loving West. The Pirates also emphasize the following:

“If Assange’s findings on WikiLeaks served Putin’s propaganda, it was a side effect of fulfilling the public interest – Donald Trump in the White House was also Putin’s victory, but Trump’s victory itself was democratically legitimate. Assange’s extradition will undoubtedly play into Putin’s hands, but this time without fulfilling the public interest. If anyone called Assange a “useful idiot of the Kremlin”: today, there is a danger that the British and American administrations themselves will become such “useful idiots of the Kremlin”. On the verge of this threat, we humbly ask you not to send Julian Assange somewhere, where he is in danger of death.”

Enclosed, please find the whole letter sent to PM Boris Johnson, signed by Markéta Gregorová, Marcel Kolaja, Mikuláš Peksa and Patrick Breyer.

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