"Navalny was an opposition figure, but his investigative journalism exposed the corruption of the ruling elites in Russia," said Stella Assange.
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was pictured at a rally in Moscow on September 29, 2019.
(Photo: Sefa Karacan/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
COMMON DREAMS
Feb 16, 2024
The wife of WikiLeaks founder and imprisoned journalist Julian Assange said Friday that the reported death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is "utterly devastating," pointing to his work uncovering corruption at the highest levels of Russian society.
"He was only 47. Had he not been imprisoned, he would be alive," Stella Assange wrote on social media. "Navalny was an opposition figure, but his investigative journalism exposed the corruption of the ruling elites in Russia."
"I feel for his wife Yulia and their two children, who will probably never really know what happened," she added. "Condolences to his friends and family."
Navalny's past release of confidential documents from the Russian government and state-run energy companies had drawn comparisons to Assange's work at WikiLeaks, which exposed U.S. war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as international corruption.
Assange is currently languishing in a maximum-security prison in London, awaiting a hearing next week that will determine whether he can appeal his extradition to the United States.
Stella Assange warned Thursday that her husband "will die" if he's extradited.
U.S. President Joe Biden, whose administration opted to run with the prosecution of Assange that began under former President Donald Trump, warned in 2021 that the consequences for Russia "would be devastating" if Navalny died in prison.
"They killed him. I am heartbroken."
Russia's Federal Penitentiary Service said in a statement Friday that Navalny lost consciousness after taking a walk at the penal colony above the Arctic Circle to which he was relocated in December. Navalny's health had badly deteriorated during his more than three years in prison on charges that he and human rights groups said were politically motivated.
Russia's prison service said Friday that "all necessary resuscitation measures were taken" after Navalny fell unconscious but were not successful.
"The ambulance doctors confirmed the death of the convict," the service added.
Leonid Volkov, Navalny's chief of staff, said he could not confirm the truth of Russian authorities' statement and that the opposition leader's attorney is heading to the prison where he was held.
"We have no grounds to believe state propaganda," Volkov wrote on social media. "If it's true, then it's not 'Navalny died,' but 'Putin killed Navalny,' nothing else. But I don't believe them for a second."
A spokesperson for Navalny said that "as soon as we have any information, we will report it."
Agnès Callamard, secretary-general Amnesty International, said in a statement that Navalny "was a prisoner of conscience jailed only for speaking out against a repressive government."
“He demanded political freedom for himself and his supporters. He called out corruption and challenged [Russian President Vladimir] Putin. His death is a devastating and dire indictment of life under the oppressive and stifling rule of the Kremlin," said Callamard. "He paid the ultimate price for being a critical voice, and championing freedom of expression."
"As the search for justice begins, it is clear, there are few avenues at our disposal," she added. "That's why it is crucial that the international community take concrete actions to hold all those responsible to account. We must urgently call upon the United Nations to employ its special procedures and mechanisms to address the death of Aleksei Navalny."
The Peace and Justice Project, an organization founded by former U.K. Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn, wrote Friday that "the world is watching an assault on political freedom."
"From the death of Navalny in Russian custody, to Julian Assange's U.K. imprisonment, to the thousands of Palestinian political prisoners in Israel, to Modi's harassment of opponents in India, our duty is to speak up for justice," the group said.
Yanis Varoufakis, the former Greek finance minister and co-founder of Progressive International, agreed with that statement.
"Precisely," he responded on social media. "From the genocide of Palestinians to the slow murder of Julian Assange to the eradication of Navalny... universal rights and freedoms are under fire."
In separate posts about Navalny's death, Varoufakis said progressives worldwide "need to fight for the right of all people not to be condemned to slow death in solitary confinement" and that his thoughts were with "all political prisoners languishing in jails."
Feb 16, 2024
The wife of WikiLeaks founder and imprisoned journalist Julian Assange said Friday that the reported death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is "utterly devastating," pointing to his work uncovering corruption at the highest levels of Russian society.
"He was only 47. Had he not been imprisoned, he would be alive," Stella Assange wrote on social media. "Navalny was an opposition figure, but his investigative journalism exposed the corruption of the ruling elites in Russia."
"I feel for his wife Yulia and their two children, who will probably never really know what happened," she added. "Condolences to his friends and family."
Navalny's past release of confidential documents from the Russian government and state-run energy companies had drawn comparisons to Assange's work at WikiLeaks, which exposed U.S. war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as international corruption.
Assange is currently languishing in a maximum-security prison in London, awaiting a hearing next week that will determine whether he can appeal his extradition to the United States.
Stella Assange warned Thursday that her husband "will die" if he's extradited.
U.S. President Joe Biden, whose administration opted to run with the prosecution of Assange that began under former President Donald Trump, warned in 2021 that the consequences for Russia "would be devastating" if Navalny died in prison.
"They killed him. I am heartbroken."
Russia's Federal Penitentiary Service said in a statement Friday that Navalny lost consciousness after taking a walk at the penal colony above the Arctic Circle to which he was relocated in December. Navalny's health had badly deteriorated during his more than three years in prison on charges that he and human rights groups said were politically motivated.
Russia's prison service said Friday that "all necessary resuscitation measures were taken" after Navalny fell unconscious but were not successful.
"The ambulance doctors confirmed the death of the convict," the service added.
Leonid Volkov, Navalny's chief of staff, said he could not confirm the truth of Russian authorities' statement and that the opposition leader's attorney is heading to the prison where he was held.
"We have no grounds to believe state propaganda," Volkov wrote on social media. "If it's true, then it's not 'Navalny died,' but 'Putin killed Navalny,' nothing else. But I don't believe them for a second."
A spokesperson for Navalny said that "as soon as we have any information, we will report it."
Agnès Callamard, secretary-general Amnesty International, said in a statement that Navalny "was a prisoner of conscience jailed only for speaking out against a repressive government."
“He demanded political freedom for himself and his supporters. He called out corruption and challenged [Russian President Vladimir] Putin. His death is a devastating and dire indictment of life under the oppressive and stifling rule of the Kremlin," said Callamard. "He paid the ultimate price for being a critical voice, and championing freedom of expression."
"As the search for justice begins, it is clear, there are few avenues at our disposal," she added. "That's why it is crucial that the international community take concrete actions to hold all those responsible to account. We must urgently call upon the United Nations to employ its special procedures and mechanisms to address the death of Aleksei Navalny."
The Peace and Justice Project, an organization founded by former U.K. Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn, wrote Friday that "the world is watching an assault on political freedom."
"From the death of Navalny in Russian custody, to Julian Assange's U.K. imprisonment, to the thousands of Palestinian political prisoners in Israel, to Modi's harassment of opponents in India, our duty is to speak up for justice," the group said.
Yanis Varoufakis, the former Greek finance minister and co-founder of Progressive International, agreed with that statement.
"Precisely," he responded on social media. "From the genocide of Palestinians to the slow murder of Julian Assange to the eradication of Navalny... universal rights and freedoms are under fire."
In separate posts about Navalny's death, Varoufakis said progressives worldwide "need to fight for the right of all people not to be condemned to slow death in solitary confinement" and that his thoughts were with "all political prisoners languishing in jails."
Days Before Extradition Hearing, Australian Parliament Tells US to Drop Assange Case
The vote "gives the government a real mandate to advocate very, very strongly for a political solution to bring Julian Assange home," said the journalist's brother.
JULIA CONLEY
Feb 15, 2024
COMMON DREAMS
As WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange awaits a two-day hearing before the United Kingdom's High Court next week on his possible extradition to the United States, lawmakers in his home country of Australia voted Wednesday in favor of pushing the U.S. and U.K. to allow Assange to return home instead.
"Enough is enough," said Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese regarding the U.S. case against Assange, who published thousands of classified diplomatic and military documents in 2010 that included evidence of U.S. war crimes. "This thing cannot just go on and on and on indefinitely."
The prime minister joined 85 other lawmakers in voting for a motion proposed by Andrew Wilkie, an Independent member of the country's House of Representatives, to demand that the U.S. and U.K. drop the extradition effort and bring the case against Assange "to a close so that Mr. Assange can return home to his family in Australia."
Forty-two lawmakers opposed the measure.
Assange has been held at London's high-security Belmarsh Prison for the past five years, having been arrested for skipping bail in a separate legal matter.
In the U.S., he faces 17 espionage charges over WikiLeaks' publication of the classified documents.
In 2021, a U.K. judge ruled that the U.S. could not extradite Assange on the charges, saying prison conditions in the U.S. would endanger Assange's life. The journalist's physical and mental health has been in decline since his imprisonment, and he has suffered a mini-stroke, severe depression, and suicidal ideation, according to his attorneys.
The Biden administration appealed the decision, and the following year a court ruled that the extradition could proceed.
The High Court is set to hear Assange's case on February 20-21 to determine whether he should be granted a full appeal to challenge his extradition, and his family and other supporters fear that if he loses the appeal, the U.K. could send him to the U.S. before he has a chance to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.
Assange's wife, Stella Assange, said at a news conference on Thursday that the journalist could be on a plane to the U.S. "within days" if he loses the case.
"If he is extradited, he will die," she said.
On Wednesday, Amnesty International reiterated its call for the charges against Assange to be dropped, citing both "the risk of serious human rights violations" against him if he is held in the U.S. prison system and "a profound 'chilling effect' on global media freedom."
"The risk to publishers and investigative journalists around the world hangs in the balance. Should Julian Assange be sent to the U.S. and prosecuted there, global media freedoms will be on trial, too," said Julia Hall, Amnesty International's expert on counter-terrorism and criminal justice in Europe. "The public's right to information about what their governments are doing in their name will be profoundly undermined. The U.S. must drop the charges under the Espionage Act against Assange and bring an end to his arbitrary detention in the U.K."
Albanese said it is generally "not up to Australia to interfere in the legal processes of other countries, but it is appropriate for us to put our very strong view that those countries need to take into account the need for this to be concluded."
Speaking before Parliament ahead of the vote, Wilkie urged his colleagues to "stand for media freedom and the rights of journalists to do their jobs."
"Regardless of what you might think of Julian Assange," he said, "this has gone on too long... It must be brought to an end. And I'm confident that this Parliament can support this motion... It will send a very powerful political signal to the British government and the U.S. government."
Gabriel Shipton, Assange's brother, applauded Parliament for their show of support "at a crucial time" and said the vote "gives the government a real mandate to advocate very, very strongly for a political solution to bring Julian Assange home."
The vote "gives the government a real mandate to advocate very, very strongly for a political solution to bring Julian Assange home," said the journalist's brother.
JULIA CONLEY
Feb 15, 2024
COMMON DREAMS
As WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange awaits a two-day hearing before the United Kingdom's High Court next week on his possible extradition to the United States, lawmakers in his home country of Australia voted Wednesday in favor of pushing the U.S. and U.K. to allow Assange to return home instead.
"Enough is enough," said Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese regarding the U.S. case against Assange, who published thousands of classified diplomatic and military documents in 2010 that included evidence of U.S. war crimes. "This thing cannot just go on and on and on indefinitely."
The prime minister joined 85 other lawmakers in voting for a motion proposed by Andrew Wilkie, an Independent member of the country's House of Representatives, to demand that the U.S. and U.K. drop the extradition effort and bring the case against Assange "to a close so that Mr. Assange can return home to his family in Australia."
Forty-two lawmakers opposed the measure.
Assange has been held at London's high-security Belmarsh Prison for the past five years, having been arrested for skipping bail in a separate legal matter.
In the U.S., he faces 17 espionage charges over WikiLeaks' publication of the classified documents.
In 2021, a U.K. judge ruled that the U.S. could not extradite Assange on the charges, saying prison conditions in the U.S. would endanger Assange's life. The journalist's physical and mental health has been in decline since his imprisonment, and he has suffered a mini-stroke, severe depression, and suicidal ideation, according to his attorneys.
The Biden administration appealed the decision, and the following year a court ruled that the extradition could proceed.
The High Court is set to hear Assange's case on February 20-21 to determine whether he should be granted a full appeal to challenge his extradition, and his family and other supporters fear that if he loses the appeal, the U.K. could send him to the U.S. before he has a chance to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.
Assange's wife, Stella Assange, said at a news conference on Thursday that the journalist could be on a plane to the U.S. "within days" if he loses the case.
"If he is extradited, he will die," she said.
On Wednesday, Amnesty International reiterated its call for the charges against Assange to be dropped, citing both "the risk of serious human rights violations" against him if he is held in the U.S. prison system and "a profound 'chilling effect' on global media freedom."
"The risk to publishers and investigative journalists around the world hangs in the balance. Should Julian Assange be sent to the U.S. and prosecuted there, global media freedoms will be on trial, too," said Julia Hall, Amnesty International's expert on counter-terrorism and criminal justice in Europe. "The public's right to information about what their governments are doing in their name will be profoundly undermined. The U.S. must drop the charges under the Espionage Act against Assange and bring an end to his arbitrary detention in the U.K."
Albanese said it is generally "not up to Australia to interfere in the legal processes of other countries, but it is appropriate for us to put our very strong view that those countries need to take into account the need for this to be concluded."
Speaking before Parliament ahead of the vote, Wilkie urged his colleagues to "stand for media freedom and the rights of journalists to do their jobs."
"Regardless of what you might think of Julian Assange," he said, "this has gone on too long... It must be brought to an end. And I'm confident that this Parliament can support this motion... It will send a very powerful political signal to the British government and the U.S. government."
Gabriel Shipton, Assange's brother, applauded Parliament for their show of support "at a crucial time" and said the vote "gives the government a real mandate to advocate very, very strongly for a political solution to bring Julian Assange home."
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