A handful of activists voiced their support for WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange outside Her Majesty’s Prison Belmarsh in London on Sunday, where he’s currently been detained until May 2.
The protesters exhibited several banners reading “Free Assange” and “Respect UNWGAD [United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention]” outside the Category A jail.
“The reason why these actions have been taken is because he has drawn attention to the abuses of state power, the war crimes that were perpetrated in Iraq and this is something we should be venerating him for, not actually penalising and punishing him the way the British government is seeking to do now,” said Chris Williamson, independent member of parliament.
Williamson also said that Assange is ‘an ill man’ and ‘should have been taken to hospital in the back of an ambulance not bundled into the back of the police van into prison.’
Former Labour MP George Galloway added that British courts have to reject the application for extradition to the US, since the charges were neither committed in the United States, nor by a United States citizen.
Assange was arrested by British police on Thursday after Ecuador officially revoked his asylum status and allowed UK police to escort him from the embassy and into custody.
He was then taken to a British court, where he was found guilty of breaching bail and ordered to remain in custody until an extradition hearing next month.