Don’t say bureaucrats in Brussels don’t appreciate irony. Following the arrest in London of Julian Assange, the co-founder of whistleblowing site WikiLeaks, MEPs overwhelmingly voted for a law on protecting whistleblowers.
Assange is facing extradition to the US, where he is wanted for allegedly facilitating the leak of confidential US documents by former US Army soldier Chelsea Manning. The US law frames his actions as a “conspiracy to commit computer intrusion” – a charge that carries a five-year maximum prison term and which Assange supporters call as an obvious pretext to get Assange in US custody and slap him with further indictments.
Only 10 EU nations, including the UK, have such laws in place now, the parliament’s website stressed. But with 591 MEPs voting ‘yay’ on Tuesday, that will soon change.
“Indirect retaliation also includes actions taken against facilitators or coworkers or relatives of the reporting person,” it says.