2024-02-16 08:28:09
With drawn features and a white beard, John Shipton continues to travel with one goal: to free his son, Julian Assange. Quite discreet during the seven years of asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy, the arrest of the founder of WikiLeaks in April 2019 by the British police pushed this former architect to break his silence. “Julian can no longer speak to defend himself. It is up to his family and friends to speak for him. I have become one of his ambassadors wherever I go in order to obtain his release”explains John Shipton.
From the first minutes of his son’s incarceration, the United States sent an extradition request targeting the 52-year-old Australian for violation of the espionage law, for which he risks one hundred and seventy-five years in prison. . Washington is relentlessly pursuing him for the release of 750,000 classified documents, starting in 2010, which revealed war crimes committed in Iraq and Afghanistan by the American and British armies.
A daily struggle
From Australia where he lives, John Shipton does not hesitate and takes the first flight to London to find his son, who is in a cell in the high security Belmarsh prison. This visit left a deep impression on him. There he discovered the journalist in an extremely deteriorated physical state and worrying mental health. “He had lost more than 10 kilos with constant psychological pressure. I immediately promised him to come back regularly until he was free.”he says.
In Belmarsh, Julian Assange remains in a small cell, 22 hours a day, and receives only two visits per week and one ten-minute phone call. Hence the anger of John Shipton, who calls upon the British authorities on the fact of “put a journalist in prison, without trial, in a maximum security establishment, like a terrorist or a murderer! What did he do other than publish information of public interest? It is a cornerstone of media freedom, citizens’ rights and the human rights that underpin our democracies.”. The United Nations recognized and warned of a form of “torture” that his detention constitutes.
At 78 years old, he has never given up this fight. For five years, this anti-war and progressive activist has spared no effort in going wherever he is invited. “We visited more than fifty countries to give conferences in the United States, Great Britain, Europe, Latin America with his wife, Stella, or his half-brother, Gabriel. We also visited various institutions such as the United Nations High Commission, the European Parliament, the Council of Europe and several Parliaments, such as the National Assembly in Paris.. In this constant struggle, the regret remains of having to leave his daughter in Melbourne.
An epilogue on February 21
This support dates back almost twenty years, when Julian Assange, a student, moved to Newtown with his father. Later, they have long discussions regarding the creation of WikiLeaks; the company’s address was carried out under the name Shipton.
Despite everything, this relentless fight has a financial cost which pushed John to sell his house in Newtown, due to lack of liquidity, and to rely on donations from individuals and the sale of books. “After all, this procedure symbolizes an international standoff between one man and an empire over press freedom”he summarizes.
The epilogue of the Assange affair might take place on February 20 and 21. The British High Court of Justice will examine during these two days the admissibility of the journalist’s final appeal in the United Kingdom to prevent his extradition to the United States. “At the end of these two days of hearing, either the two judges authorize the founder of WikiLeaks to formally present this appeal or they refuse him to do so. In this scenario, the Australian journalist might be extradited immediately by Washington. We will have the possibility of submitting an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) but this will not be suspensive. It will be up to the United Kingdom to take this decision into consideration because nothing obliges it to do so.alert, worried, John Shipton.
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