After attending the coronation of King Charles III in London, Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva denounced the lack of concerted efforts to free WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has spent four years in Britain’s Belmarsh Prison.
“It is an embarrassment that a journalist who denounced trickery by one state against another is arrested, condemned to die in jail and we do nothing to free him. It’s a crazy thing,” Lula told reporters. “We talk about freedom of expression; the guy is in prison because he denounced wrongdoing. And the press doesn’t do anything in defense of this journalist. I can’t understand it.”
Lula offered the remarks in response to a question about Assange, who is a native Australian. He said he had forgotten to discuss the matter with UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, but that he would write to him upon returning to Brazil.
Assange has been fighting extradition to the United States, and Lula’s comments come at a moment that he has shown little reluctance to voice his differences of opinion with Washington regarding geopolitical matters, particularly in his opposition to providing arms to Ukraine for its war against Russia, and accusing the US and Europe of encouraging the fighting. His stance and repeated statements have drawn sharp rebukes from the White House and Europe.
For its part, Australia has been stepping up diplomatic pressure on the US government to call off its prosecution of Assange.
On Friday, Australia’s Prime Minister Albanese told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. in an interview that “enough is enough. There is nothing to be served by his ongoing incarceration.” Last November, Albanese told Parliament that his “position is clear and has been made clear to the US administration: That it is time that this matter be brought to a close.”
