FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – 1 December 2022 ASSANGE FAMILY RESPOND TO PM’S STATEMENT ‘I HAVE RAISED THIS ISSUE WITH THE U.S. GOVT’ “I have raised this personally with representatives of the United States government. My position is clear and has been made clear to the US administration that it is time that this matter be brought to a close. This is an Australian citizen.” – Prime Minister Albanese. Yesterday in Parliament, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese answered a question from the Member for Kooyong, Dr Monique Ryan regarding the Australian publisher and WikiLeaks co-founder, Julian Assange. Below are quotes, attributable to members of Julian Assange’s family and the Assange Campaign Australian legal advisors, in response to Prime Minister Albanese’s statement yesterday. Quote from John Shipton, father of Julian Assange: “Prime Minister Albanese, in representations to the White House, stands firmly with citizens of Australia and the great newspapers of the world: The New York Time, The Guardian, Der Spiegel, Le Monde and El Pais.” “Drop the charges. Return Julian home. We now get to see Australia’s standing in Washington, valued ally or not.” Quote from Gabriel Shipton, brother of Julian Assange: “Finally the Prime Minister has publicly called for this endless persecution of Australian publisher Julian Assange to be brought to an end.” “Australians will be keenly watching to see how the U.S. reacts and if it will respect the calls of the Australian Public and Government to show mercy to Australian citizen Julian Assange.” Quote from Greg Barns SC – Assange Campaign Legal Advisor: “When an Australian Prime Minister raises concerns about an Australian citizen’s treatment by the U.S. it is a serious matter given the strength of the alliance between the two countries.” “It is clear that Mr Albanese understands the injustice of the Assange case.  Australians rightly expect their government to intervene in cases where Australians are detained overseas in unjust circumstances.” . Quote from Stephen Kenny, Assange Campaign Solicitor: “It was reassuring to hear the words of the Prime Minister. However, words need to be backed by action, and we would hope that the Prime Minister’s representation has been heard in the United States.  Action from the United States will determine if our Prime Minister has any influence in our relationship with the United States.  For Julian’s sake, I sincerely hope he does.” “In this case, enough has been more than enough.  The imprisonment of Mr Assange has been a failure of justice, an abuse of process and should put a chill in the heart of every publisher who exposes the offences of a powerful nation. “ “The Five newspapers, The Guardian, The New York Times, Le Monde, Der Spiegel and El País, who also published the documents from Chelsea Manning, yesterday issued a joint statement saying that “publishing is not a crime”. The newspapers called for the dropping of the espionage charges against Mr Assange. They have never been prosecuted for doing exactly the same as Mr Assange.  Such a double standard should not be tolerated.” John Shipton and Stephen Kenny meet with Minister Penny Wong at Parliament House on Monday 28 November 2022 Available for further media comment: Gabriel Shipton – brother of Julian Assange John Shipton – father of Julian Assange Greg Barns SC – Assange Campaign Legal Advisor Stephen Kenny – Assange Campaign Solicitor Media contact:   Jodie Harrison   media@assangecampaign.org  0425 754 370 Read the Hansard excerpt – PM’s statement yesterday

Page_50_Hansard_Excerpt_Julian_Assange

PEN Melbourne response

www.penmelbourne.org

president@penmelbourne.org

Wednesday 30 November 2022

RE: PM Albanese’s answer to Monique Ryan’s question about Julian Assange in Parliament today

International PEN Melbourne Centre welcomed MP Monique Ryan’s question to PM Albanese today, “Will the government intervene to bring Mr Assange home?”

PM Albanese replied “…it is time that this matter be brought to a close” and that, “My position is clear and has been made clear to the US administration”. He said that he will continue to advocate (for Julian Assange). The PM commented that while he did not have sympathy for some of Julian Assange’s actions, “You have to reach a point, whereby what is the point of continuing this legal action, which could be caught up now for many years, into the future.”

PEN Melbourne welcomes PM Albanese’s position on Julian Assange’s incarceration and urges him to continue to advocate vigorously with President Biden and the US administration his call today that ‘enough is enough’. We call on the US authorities to drop the charges against Assange and withdraw the extradition request.

PEN Melbourne, however, maintains that the charges, treatment and continued detention of Julian Assange are extraordinary and explicable only as political persecution. His mistreatment while incarcerated in the UK has been extreme, illegal, denies his human rights and is threatening his life. The legal process is being used as punishment. The political nature of the charges and illegal activities by UK and US authorities are grounds for his immediate release and for dismissing the extradition request. We therefore call on the UK government to immediately release Julian Assange from Belmarsh high security prison and to reject the extradition request.

Jennifer Robinson at the National Press Club  here is the ABC link https://iview.abc.net.au/video/NC2211C038S00

Julian Assange, Free Speech and Democracy
Jennifer Robinson
Australian National Press Club, 19 October 2022

Thank you for your warm welcome and introduction, Laura.
It is a great pleasure to be with you at Australia’s National Press Club on Ngunnawal
land. I pay my respect to Ngunnawal elders past, present and emerging – and to all
First Nations people here today and joining us remotely.
I’d like to also acknowledge the presence today of those who have supported Julian
and his family – including
• Members of the Friends of Assange Parliamentary group, Senators Peter
Whish Wilson and David Shoebridge as well as Member for Kooyong, the Hon
Dr Monique Ryan;
• Bernard Collaery, whose endurance, courage and integrity inspires so many
of us;
• And David McBride, the whistle–blower still facing trial, who remains the only
person charged years after the Brereton Report
***
I have been working on Julian Assange’s defence and talking about its implications
for freedom of the press and democracy for more than a decade.
You might have heard some media soundbites from me on these themes over the
years: about the stark injustice that Julian faces 175 years in prison for committing
acts of journalism; about how the US seeks to condemn him to life in prison for the
very same publications for which he has won awards the world over – including the
Walkley Award for Most Outstanding Contribution to Journalism and the Sydney
Peace Prize Medal; and that his prosecution sets a dangerous precedent for free
speech and journalists everywhere.
But having an opportunity to elaborate is rare, so my thanks to the National Press
Club for giving me this time with you today.
I’m often asked how Julian is, so let me start there:
I don’t know how much longer he can last.
The world was shocked by his appearance when he was arrested in 2019.
I wasn’t.

2
For over 7 years, I had been watching his health decline inside the Ecuadorian
embassy where he was protecting himself from US extradition.
After years of government statements and media commentary claiming Julian was
paranoid and should just leave the embassy, some were surprised when Julian was
served with a US extradition request.
I wasn’t. It was exactly what we had been warning about for a decade.
For the past 3.5 years, Julian has been in a high security prison in London – and I
have watched his health decline even further.
Then last year, during a stressful court appeal hearing, Julian had a mini stroke.
As the prosecution was deriding the medical evidence of Julian’s severe depression
and suicidal ideation – and the risk to his life – those with video access saw Julian in
a blue room in Belmarsh with his head in his hands.
I’ve seen Julian on some pretty bad days, but he looked terrible.
I was alarmed. And for good reason.
As it turned out, he had just had – or was experiencing as we watched – a mini
stroke, often the harbinger for a major stroke.
Once again, we were witnessing Julian’s health deteriorate in real time.
Julian’s wife Stella waits anxiously for the phone call she dreads. As she has said,
Julian is suffering profoundly in prison – and it is no exaggeration to say he may not
survive it.
***
Unless a political resolution is found – and this case has always been political – Julian
will be detained for many years to come.
It is impossible to accurately predict the timeline, but here is a brief overview of
where we are and what the legal process ahead looks like.
After a year–long extradition hearing process, interrupted by COVID outbreaks,
Julian won his case in early January 2021. If extradited to the US, he would be
placed under prison conditions known as Special Administrative Measures – or SAMs
– which has been described as the darkest black hole of the US prison system. The
magistrate ruled that Julian’s extradition would be oppressive because the medical
evidence shows that if extradited and placed under SAMs, he would suicide. So she
barred his extradition.
But the Trump administration appealed – and in its last days, sought to get around
the court decision and shift the goal posts by offering an assurance that Julian would
not be placed under SAMs.

3
As Amnesty International has said, US assurances aren’t worth the paper they’re
written on.
But in Julian’s case it’s even worse that that because the US assurance was
conditional: the US only promised not to place him under SAMs unless they decide
he later deserves it.
And who would decide? The CIA. And he would have no right to appeal their
decision.
Before the US government appeal was heard, we learned – thanks to important
investigative journalism – that the CIA had planned to kidnap and kill Julian.
Yes: let’s pause there for a moment.
The CIA had planned to kidnap and kill an award–winning Australian journalist in
London.
Again: the Central Intelligence Agency had plans in place to send someone to
London to kidnap and assassinate Julian Assange. We know this because of an
investigation based on interviews with 30 official US government sources.
And this is the intelligence agency which has the power to place Julian, once
extradited to the US, under prison conditions that doctors say would cause his
suicide.
When the news broke, I thought – finally – this has got to end the case.
But no.
The British courts accepted the US assurance and ruled Julian could be extradited
despite these circumstances.
In June, the British Home Secretary ordered his extradition.
We have filed an appeal and we should learn soon whether the High Court will grant
permission and hear it.
If it does, we can expect a process that could take years – through the High Court,
and to the UK Supreme Court. If we lose, we will appeal to the European Court of
Human Rights – that is, if the conservative British government doesn’t remove its
jurisdiction before we are able to.
If our appeal fails, Julian will be extradited to the US – where his prison conditions will
be at the whim of the intelligence agencies which plotted to kill him. He will face an
unfair trial and once convicted, it could take years before a First Amendment
constitutional challenge would be heard before the US Supreme Court.
Another decade of his life gone – if he can survive that long.

4
And that is why I am here.
This case needs an urgent political solution. Julian does not have another decade to
wait for a legal fix. It might be surprising to hear me, as a lawyer, say this: but the
solution is not legal, it is political.
When you hear politicians or government officials in the UK or US or in Australia
using language like due process and rule of law – this is what they are talking about.
Punishment by legal process. Bury him in never–ending legal process until he dies.
In fact, there’s been very little “rule of law” or “due process” in what’s been inflicted
on Julian. As we argue in our appeal, the case has been rife with abuse.
The case against him is unprecedented – it is the first time in history a publisher has
faced prosecution for journalism under the Espionage Act. And the US is going to
argue that, as an Australian citizen, Julian is not entitled to constitutional free speech
protection at all.
The UK–US extradition treaty prohibits extradition for political offences – and yet the
US is purporting relying on this treaty to extradite Julian under the Espionage Act.
Espionage is a political offence.
We have seen the fabrication of evidence against him – the US’ key witness in
Iceland has admitted he lied but the US continues to press charges based on his
evidence. And its indictment deliberately misrepresents the facts.
We have seen unlawful surveillance of Julian, on me personally and his lawyers, on
his medical treatment, and the seizure of legally privileged material. At the extradition
hearing, we heard evidence from Daniel Ellsberg, the revered leaker of the Pentagon
Papers. Ellsberg explained that his prosecution under the Espionage Act by the
Nixon administration was thrown out – with prejudice – for far less abuse than Julian
has faced. But Julian’s prosecution commenced under the Trump administration –
and now continues under Biden. What does that say about our civil liberties and our
democracies in 2022?
The list of abuse goes on and on.
[take a breath…]
As a lawyer working on human rights cases, it’s important to remain focused on the
principles at stake and the work at hand. An essential part of the job is being
dispassionate and level–headed in the face of injustice.
But it has become harder and harder over the years to remain unaffected by what
Julian is being put through – as a human being and fellow Australian.
In 2019, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Nils Melzer, reported his findings on
Julian’s case and concluded Julian had been subjected to torture. Years before, we
had made a complaint to Melzer’s mandate – but we heard nothing back. Melzer

5
would later admit he had ignored our complaint because, like many, he was
prejudiced against Julian after years of government propaganda and media
coverage attacking Julian’s reputation.
But in 2019, he agreed to read our complaint. And what he read shocked him and
forced him to confront his own prejudice. He has since written a book about what
he learned, The Trial of Julian Assange, which I highly recommend.
In his UN findings, Melzer put it this way:
‘In 20 years of work with victims of war, violence and political persecution I
have never seen a group of democratic States ganging up to deliberately
isolate, demonise and abuse a single individual for such a long time and with
so little regard for human dignity and the rule of law’.
It hasn’t always been easy to remain dispassionate in the face of this persecution –
and its impact on Julian and his family.
Julian’s has two small children, Gabriel and Max, who are just 5 and 3. When they
tell me about going to see Daddy “in the queue” – they are talking about seeing him
in prison. They call it “the queue” because of the security queue they have to stand
in, as guards pat down and search their little bodies, checking inside their ears and
mouths, in their hair and in their shoes, before they can see their father.
It is heart–breaking.
Due to COVID restrictions, Julian wasn’t allowed to see his children for 6 months.
When they were finally let into see him, ongoing prison restrictions meant there was
a period he wasn’t allowed to touch them or give them a cuddle. Explain that to a
child.
It is heart–breaking.
Last week, thousands of people linked hands to form a human chain around British
Parliament in an inspiring protest to demand Julian’s freedom. The kids came to the
protest and I walked with them around the chain. They were wearing their “Free My
Dad” t–shirts, and chanted along with the crowd “Free Julian Assange”.
It is heart–breaking.
I say this because I want to remind you all today of the very real, human
consequences of this case.
***
But what is Julian in prison for? Why are he and his family being put through all of
this?
The events that led to Julian’s indictment started in a room similar to this one.

6
On 5 April 2010, at the National Press Club in Washington DC, WikiLeaks shared the
Collateral Murder video with the world. It put WikiLeaks – and Julian – on the map in
all kinds of ways.
As you know, it showed the murder of civilians, children and journalists by US forces
in Iraq. A war crime, which the US authorities then tried to cover up.
An Australian journalist, Dean Yates, was the head of Reuters in Iraq at the time. He
sought answers about what had happened to his colleagues. The US claimed their
forces had complied with their rules of engagement. That was a lie. Freedom of
Information requests were rejected – and Yates and Reuters were denied the truth.
It was only after the video and rules of engagement were published by WikiLeaks
that the world understood what happened.
I want to emphasise here: Julian is being prosecuted for publishing evidence about
the murder of your journalist colleagues in Iraq.
After the release of Collateral Murder came the Afghan War Diary, the Iraq War Logs
and the State Department Cables. In each of these releases, WikiLeaks pioneered
global collaborations between journalists on a scale never seen before. Working
together with WikiLeaks, journalists from mainstream media outlets, analysed large
sets of data, identifying patterns and trends to understand what was really
happening, and tell the story.
The publications showed that thousands more civilians were killed in American wars
than the US government had ever admitted. They showed evidence of war crimes,
extrajudicial killings, and torture by US forces, western governments and their
autocratic regime allies. They revealed the dense networks of support between those
governments and major corporations and the extent to which foreign and trade policy
was driven by corporate interests.
Journalism like this, at its core, is about subjecting power to scrutiny, and holding it
accountable.
And the powerful didn’t like it. WikiLeaks was responsible for hundreds – even
thousands – of stories about how power really works in Washington, in London, in
Canberra, in capitals across the world – about what it means in the streets and
homes of people in countries like Iraq and Afghanistan – and about the price that is
paid for the application of power in shattered lives and dead and broken bodies.
Rather than shame, WikiLeaks provoked rage – rage that journalism was exposing
the powerful.
The Obama administration opened a criminal investigation which Australian
diplomats reported was unprecedented in size and scale.

Tuesday 29 November 2022 – 10:15am

Nedim’s letter as a pdf:

Nedim letter Nov 2021

*******

Today marks 2000 days behind bars for reporter and poet Nedim Türfent.

1. Today marks 2000 days behind bars for reporter and poet Nedim Türfent. We urge his immediate and unconditional release and stand in solidarity with all the journalists unjustly imprisoned in Turkey #FreeNedimTürfent #FreeTurkeyJournalists

1. Bugün, gazeteci ve şair Nedim Türfent’in parmaklıklar ardındaki 2000. günü. Nedim’in derhal ve koşulsuz tahliyesini talep ediyoruz ve Türkiye’de hukuksuzca hapsedilmiş tüm gazetecilerin yanında olduğumuzu yineliyoruz. #NedimTürfentİçinÖzgürlük #GazetecilikSuçDeğildir

3. ‘Within solidarity, nothing is beyond our reach’ –so wrote journalist & poet Nedim Türfent in a postcard to our PEN Melbourne community. Despite the catalogue of judicial injustice against him, he remains in prison. Today marks 2000 days #FreeNedimTürfent #FreeTurkeyJournalists

4. Nedim Türfent on accepting PEN Melbourne honorary membership: ‘Coming from the farthest point of borders,this honor has erased once and for all the borders that sovereigns are trying to put in between us’.Please write to Nedim via #PENWrites campaign www.englishpen.org/pen-writes.

5. In Turkey, the practice of holding journalists and writers in pre-trial detention is part of systematic, unjust and pervasive judicial harassment. The analysis of witness testimonies against Nedim Türfent are shown to have serious legal flaws. Today marks 2000 days behind bars. We urge his immediate and unconditional release and stand in solidarity with all the journalists unjustly imprisoned in Turkey #FreeNedimTürfent #FreeTurkeyJournalists

6. Nedim was arrested and detained in solitary confinement for almost 10 months before his indictment. In his 2017 trial he was denied the right to appear in court physically. Today marks 2000 days behind bars https://pen-international.org/news/turkey-global-appeal-marks-2000-days-in-prison-for-nedim-turfent

7. ‘I thank PEN and all its members who empower my pen under these conditions of solitary confinement.’ 2000 days in prison today #FreeNedimTürfent #FreeTurkeyJournalists

Write to Nedim via #PENWrites campaign www.englishpen.org/pen-writes.

8. Today marks 2000 days behind bars for Nedim Türfent. Send letters of solidarity to:

Nedim Türfent

Van Yüksek Güvenlikli

Kapalı Ceza İnfaz Kurumu

Koğuş A-44, Van,Turkey

OR #PENWrites campaign www.englishpen.org/pen-writes #FreeNedimTürfent #FreeTurkeyJournalists

9. In prison Nedim Türfent wrote ‘Kuş Aynası,’ a collection of poems published Sept 2021, Turkey by Aram Publishing. Access the English translation of ‘Sana dair izlerin peşinde’ (Following the Traces of You) from this collection, trans Caroline Stockford: https://pen-international.org/news/turkey-solidarity-with-nedim-turfent

10. I must tell you frankly that had I been told five years ago, ‘you will be held in prison for years,for having practiced alternative journalism,’ I would have moved along and laughed in your face: Nedim Türfent. https://pen-international.org/news/turkey-global-appeal-marks-2000-days-in-prison-for-nedim-turfent #FreeNedimTürfent #FreeTurkeyJournalists
11. Nedim Türfent, Kurdish journalist & poet, was imprisoned in 2016 after publicising police harassment of workers in south-east Turkey. Read his poem ‘Can ve canavar’ (The soul and the beast) trans. Hidayet Ceylan https://penmelbourne.org/nedim-turfent-honorary-member/
12. ‘Within solidarity, nothing is beyond our reach’ –so wrote Nedim Türfent in a postcard to PEN Melbourne.Despite the catalogue of judicial injustice against him, he remains in prison. Today marks 2000 days #FreeNedimTürfent #FreeTurkeyJournalists https://pen-international.org/news/turkey-global-appeal-marks-2000-days-in-prison-for-nedim-turfent

Nedim’s story

Nedim Türfent is a Kurdish journalist and poet. He was imprisoned in 2016 after publicising police harassment of workers in south-east Turkey.

Jackie Mansourian, Co-convenor of PEN Melbourne’s Writers-in-Prison program, explains how Nedim Türfent became an Honorary Member of PEN Melbourne:

In January 2020 Nedim Türfent wrote his first card to us. We were moved by his compassion and concern about the bushfires at that time: ‘I’m so sorry about [the] massive forest fires in Australia. Please feel my aching heart. Thank you for your letters. We are at one-heart’.

Later that year, PEN Melbourne members wrote cards to him during our annual card-writing gathering. As I wrote, I reflected on his circumstances. He had been in imprisoned since the age of 26 and the first two years were in solitary confinement. I have children of the same age. I thought of them. The pain of imagining them, like Nedim, being treated with such cruelty and disregard was unbearable. I told him that we knew of his circumstances, and were committed to working for his freedom.

Nedim replied personally to everyone who wrote to him. We were touched and challenged by this response, and made the commitment to invite Nedim to be a PEN Melbourne Honorary Member. Nedim has accepted our invitation. This means that PEN Melbourne will work purposefully and with many others, for his release. We will also help amplify awareness of his writings. Whilst in prison he has written a collection of poetry in Turkish, Kuş Aynası. Imagine the small mirror that people with budgerigars put in the cage for the birds’ own self-entertainment.

‘The Soul and the Beast,’ published here, has been translated from Nedim’s collection by Turkish-Australian poet, Hidayet Ceylan. Full details, including the original text in Turkish, are available at penmelbourne.org. It has been a complex process of dialogue about the translation, as we discuss the meanings and interpretations, without the presence and affirmation of the poet himself. Please read the poem, find out about Nedim’s circumstances, join our work for Nedim, and write to him in solidarity.

“Kendi iblislerimiziz, kendimizi cennetimizden ediyoruz.”

“We are our own devils; we are expelling ourselves from our heaven”

                                                                                                                                                                        Goethe

Nedim’i mektupsuz, selamsız bırakmayalım!

Do not leave Nedim without a letter and without a greeting!

Nedim Türfent
Van Yüksek Güvenlikli Kapalı Ceza İnfaz Kurumu
A-44
VAN – TÜRKİYE

The poem is available as a broadsheet pdf here:

nedim_broadsheet6

Nedim Türfent is a journalist and poet currently imprisoned in Turkey. In December 2017, more than 18 months after his arrest, Türfent was handed an eight-year-and-nine-month prison sentence on trumped-up terrorism charges. He has now spent more than 1,500 days in detention.  Naming Nedim as an honorary member means that PEN Melbourne will energetically prosecute his case and continue our correspondence with him.

If you would like to join our work with Nedim Türfent please contact our Writers in Prison Team.

PEN Melbourne members have written to Nedim on several occasions since his arrest, and we have received spirited and enthusiastic replies written from his prison cell. Here is a letter we received earlier this year.

—————————————————————————————————

TURKEY: ACTION Write to Selahattin Demirtaş

International PEN Melbourne Centre

ACTION

TURKEY

WRITE to Selahattin Demirtaş, a writer in prison

Throughout the year PEN Melbourne members and friends write to persecuted writers in prison around the world.

We send our best wishes, and our hopes that they are staying well and in good spirits.

We do this in the spirit of solidarity and to let them know that they are not alone and not forgotten.

We try by this means to allow a light into their lives in prison.

The letters are not political, but a gesture of friendship and a way of connecting across the cultural divides.

Send a letter to show solidarity with prominent Kurdish politician and writer Selahattin Demirtaş.

Writer and opposition politician Selahattin Demirtaş turned 48 on Saturday 10 April – the fifth birthday he has spent behind bars and away from his loved ones.

Demirtaş has been held in pre-trial detention for over four years, on dubious terrorism charges. The European Court of Human Rights twice ruled for his release, to no avail.

It is time that Turkey abides by its obligations under international law and release Demirtaş once and for all.

Backround information:

Former co-chair of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), Selahattin Demirtaş was arrested on 4 November 2016 on dubious terrorism charges. The Turkish authorities have so far failed to implement a landmark ruling of the European Court of Human Rights issued in November 2018, which found his detention to be politically motivated and ordered his immediate release – a call reiterated by the Court’s Grand Chamber in December 2020.

PEN International calls for his immediate and unconditional release.

Please send messages of solidarity to:

Mr Selahattin Demirtaş

Edirne F Tipi CİK B1-38

EDİRNE

TURKEY

We encourage anyone with a love of writing and literature to join PEN Melbourne. We are an entirely voluntary and not-for-profit organisation and our members sustain and bring vitality to our work.

In June this year UK Home Secretary Priti Patel signed an order to extradite Julian Assange to the US. There, the co-founder of WikiLeaks would face 18 criminal charges, including espionage, with a combined prison sentence of 175 years.

Julian Assange’s father John Shipton has strenuously and creatively pursued freedom for Julian, refocusing his case in the public eye. Stella Assange met Julian Assange in London in 2011 when she joined his international legal team. They have two children together, and married in March 2022 in Belmarsh high-security prison in south-east London. Barrister and renowned international human rights lawyer Jennifer Robinson has represented Julian Assange and WikiLeaks for almost a decade and is intimately familiar with the case.

At this event held on the Day of the Imprisoned Writer and presented in partnership with PEN Melbourne, Shipton, Stella Assange and Robinson explore the ongoing case of Julian Assange and WikiLeaks, and its wider implications for freedom of speech, with award-winning journalist Rachael Brown, who covered Julian Assange’s extradition hearing as an ABC Europe correspondent.

Presented in partnership with PEN Melbourne.

RAPID ACTION NETWORK

17/10/2022

Update #1 to RAN 11/2020

This month marks the two-year anniversary since Pham Doan Trang was detained by the Vietnamese authorities, who subsequently sentenced her to nine years’ imprisonment for “Making, storing, spreading information, materials, items for the purpose of opposing the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam”, a charge frequently used to target those who criticise the government. PEN International believes that Pham Doan Trang has been unjustly sentenced for her peaceful expression and calls again for her immediate and unconditional release, and for her conviction to be overturned.

TAKE ACTION! Please send appeals to the authorities of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam:

• Calling for Pham Doan Trang’s immediate release from arbitrary imprisonment by Vietnamese authorities;
• To overturn all criminal convictions against her under the Vietnamese Penal Code;
• Grant Pham Doan Trang access to adequate health care, along with immediate and unimpeded access to her family and legal representative; and
• End the crackdown on bloggers, writers and free speech activists in Vietnam.

A template appeal letter is available to use, in both English and Vietnamese.

Send appeals to:

Prime Minister

• Mr. Pham Minh Chinh
• Address: 1 Hoang Hoa Tham street, Ba Dinh district, Hanoi, Vietnam.
• Email: thongtinchinhphu@chinhphu.vn
• Social Media: https://twitter.com/vngovtport…

Minister of Foreign Affairs

• Mr. Bui Thanh Son
• Address: No. 1, Ton That Dam street, Dien Bien, Ba Dinh district, Hanoi, Vietnam.
• Email: bc.mfa@mofa.gov.vn
• Twitter: @FMBuiThanhSon

Send copies to the Embassy of Vietnam in your country: Click here.

** Please send appeals immediately. Check with PEN International if sending appeals after 31 October 2022 **

Publicity

PEN members are encouraged to:

• Publish articles and opinion pieces in your national or local press highlighting the case of Pham Doan Trang and freedom of expression in Vietnam;
• Share information about Pham Doan Trang and your campaigning activities via social media, calling for the quashing of her sentence and immediate, unconditional release.

** Please keep PEN International informed of any action you take in regard to Pham Doan Trang’s case, including any responses you receive from the authorities **

Additional Information

Pham Doan Trang is an author, journalist, publisher and democracy activist. A selfless advocate for the rights of others, she has suffered severe persecution from the authorities, including harassment, assault, and forced homelessness.

Regarded as one of Vietnam’s most prominent human rights activists, Pham Doan Trang is the author of several books, including Politics of a Police State, Non-Violent Opposition and Handbook on supporting Prisoners. Pham Doan Trang has received multiple awards in recognition of her advocacy work, including the 2020 IPA Prix Voltaire Award and the 2022 Martin Ennals Award. On 17 November 2022, Pham Doan Trang is due to be awarded CPJ’s International Press Freedom Award in recognition of her reporting in the face of persecution.

In October 2020, Pham Doan Trang was arrested at her home and charged with “conducting propaganda against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam”, an allegation frequently used to imprison dissident writers and human rights activists.

While detained, Pham Doan Trang was denied access to legal counsel and medical care for over a year. This ill-treatment raises serious concerns in relation to her pre-existing health conditions, such as low blood pressure and chronic pain, resulting from her legs being severely injured after she was assaulted by the police in 2015.

14 December 2021 Pham Doan Trang was sentenced to nine years’ imprisonment, despite her unjust detention drawing international condemnation from the the United Nations Special Procedures, human rights groups, and governments around the world. On 25 August 2022, the Hanoi People’s High Court rejected Pham Doan Trang’s appeal against the sentence. On 1 October 2022, Pham Doan Trang was transferred to a prison located approximately 100km north of Ho Chi Minh City, further complicating her ability to receive visits from her family and legal representatives.

In May 2019, Pham Doan Trang drafted a letter to be circulated in the eventuality she was ever jailed. The letter can be found here.

For previous actions by PEN International on Vietnam, click here.

For further information please contact Ross Holder, Asia Programme Coordinator at PEN International, Unit A, Koops Mill, 162-164 Abbey Street, London, SE1 2AN, Tel.+ 44 (0) 20 7405 0338, email: ross.holder@pen-international.org

Attached is an optional template letter that can be used to help draft the letter of appeal to the Vietnamese authorities (including versions in both English and Vietnamese).

Pham Doan Trang – Letter of Appeal – English

RESOLUTION ON THE PROSECUTION OF JULIAN ASSANGE AND CERTIFICATION OF HIS EXTRADITION AS THREATS TO FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION

Proposed by Scottish PEN

Seconded by PEN Melbourne

PEN International expresses serious concern over the continued prosecution in the US of Wikileaks founder and publisher Julian Assange and condemns the decision of the UK Home Secretary to certify his extradition, setting a dangerous precedent for journalists and publishers around the world. Assange faces up to 175 years in prison for his role in obtaining and publishing classified military and diplomatic documents in 2010.[i]

PEN International has repeatedly stressed that Julian Assange’s prosecution raises profound concerns about freedom of the press.[ii] Invoking the Espionage Act for practices that include receiving and publishing classified information sends a dangerous signal to journalists and publishers worldwide. The State’s desire to keep a matter secret does not automatically override the public’s right to know, particularly where there is strong evidence of human rights violations or corruption. In its War Logs, comprising hundreds of thousands of US documents about Afghanistan and the war in Iraq, WikiLeaks disclosed material detailing human rights abuses by the US army under the Bush administration, including a classified US military video showing a 2007 attack by Apache helicopters that killed a dozen people in Baghdad, with two Reuters news staff amongst them. [iii]

Assange is the first publisher to be charged under the Espionage Act. Dunja Mijatović, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, said that allowing his extradition ‘would have a chilling effect on media freedom, and could ultimately hamper the press in performing its task as purveyor of information and public watchdog in democratic societies’.[iv] Nils Melzer, former Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, described the US indictment against Assange as ‘the criminalisation of investigative journalism’. PEN International echoes the former Special Rapporteur’s concerns over Assange’s health, which has severely deteriorated as a result of being confined in Belmarsh maximum-security prison in London since April 2019. [v]

On 17 June 2022, the UK Home Secretary approved the extradition of Julian Assange, triggering a wave of condemnation from human rights and free expression groups worldwide. His legal team continues to fight against his extradition and has lodged an appeal at the UK High Court.

At its 85^th World Congress in Manila, Philippines, the PEN community condemned the charges against Julian Assange and the threats they pose to press freedom.[vi] Considering his continued prosecution in the US and the UK Home Secretary’s decision to certify his extradition, the Assembly of Delegates of PEN International calls on the United States to:

• Drop the charges against WikiLeaks founder and publisher Julian Assange and withdraw their extradition request. Espionage laws should not be used against journalists and publishers for disclosing information of public interest.

The Assembly of Delegates of PEN International calls on the United Kingdom to:

• Refrain from extraditing Julian Assange and release him from prison immediately. Assange’s freedom of movement upon release must be respected.

[i] United States of America v. Julian Paul Assange, superseding indictment, May 2019, available at: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6024843-Assange-superseding-indictment.html

[ii] See PEN International, US/UK: Decision to extradite Julian Assange to the United States condemned, 17 June 2022, available at: https://pen-international.org/news/us-uk-decision-to-extradite-julian-assange-to-the-united-states-condemned

[iii] Wikileaks, Collateral Murder, 5 April 2010, available at: https://collateralmurder.wikileaks.org/

[iv] Council of Europe, Commissioner calls on UK government not to extradite Julian Assange, 18 May 2022, available at: https://www.coe.int/en/web/commissioner/-/commissioner-calls-on-uk-government-not-to-extradite-julian-assange

[v] OHCHR, UN expert says “collective persecution” of Julian Assange must end now, 31 May 2019, available at: https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2019/05/un-expert-says-collective-persecution-julian-assange-must-end-now

[vi] PEN International, Resolution on the abuse of the US espionage and the US prosecution of Julian Assange as an attack on freedom of expression, October 2019, available at: https://pen-international.org/app/uploads/RESOLUTION-ON-THE-ABUSE-OF-THE-US-ESPIONAGE-AND-THE-US-PROSECUTION-OF-JULIAN-ASSANGE-AS-AN-ATTACK-ON-FREEDOM-OF-EXPRESSION.pdf

Photos from the SOS Human Chain in Melbourne on the 8th October, 2022

Wai Moe Naing is a writer, activist, and member of PEN Myanmar. He began writing as a student, with his first short story being published in Teen Magazine at the age of 13. His writing has since been published in several literary outlets, including Khit Yanantthit Magazine and Pae Tin Tharn Journal. In the immediate aftermath of the military coup, Wai Moe Naing rose to prominence as a leader of the anti-coup protest movement and was among those who popularised the idea of banging pots and pans as a non-violent act of resistance to the military junta’s rule.   Wai Moe Naing faces trial on a charge of high treason. Already serving 10-year prison sentence, he now faces the death penalty if convicted.   For more in-depth information, see PEN International’s report on the case: https://pen-international.org/news/myanmar-pen-myanmar-member-facing-potential-death-sentence   TAKE ACTION: Please also send appeals directly to the military junta:   -Calling for Wai Moe Naing’s immediate and unconditional release; -Urging for the dropping of all charges made against him under the Myanmar Penal Code and other legislation; -Providing Wai Moe Naing with immediate and unimpeded access to independent legal representation and his family; and -Calling for an end to the crackdown on all those engaged in peaceful expression in Myanmar.   Appeals directed to the military junta can be sent to:   Dr Thida Oo, Role: Attorney General of the Ministry of Legal Affairs, Republic of the Union of Myanmar Address: Building 25, Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar Telephone: +95 067 404054 Fax: + 95 67 404106 Email: ago.h.o@mptmail.net.mm

Myanmar: PEN Centres around the world condemn the execution of writer Kyaw Min Yu

PEN Centres around the world are appalled by Monday’s news that writer Kyaw Min Yu (also known as Ko Jimmy) is among four pro-democracy activists who have been executed by the military junta, following a show trial that denied their ability to establish their innocence according to international fair trial norms. According to sources, Kyaw Min Yu’s family have yet to be informed of the specific date that his execution took place.

Despite international appeals calling for their release, the military junta’s decision to carry out the executions, the first to take place in over 30 years, is yet another reminder of the cruel and unrelenting violence that the junta has waged against the people of Myanmar on a daily basis since it seized power on 1 February 2021.

‘By denying the right to appeal and other basic standards necessary for a fair trial, these judicial executions are a cynical attempt to cloak the abhorrent use of lethal force behind a veil of legality. By carrying out these executions, the military junta has once again displayed its murderous intent towards its own citizens, and the open contempt it holds towards its international human rights obligations.

The use of violence to silence Ko Jimmy and others will only increase the resolve of those who continue to use their voices to resist authoritarian rule, allowing their message to spread even further. The PEN community condemns this outrageous act of state violence by the military junta’, said Ma Thida, Chair of PEN International’s Writers in Prison Committee.

For further information on Kyaw Min Yu’s background and detention, please refer to PEN International’s previous statement.

With over 70 detainees currently now facing the death penalty, the resumption of judicial executions by the military junta represents an abhorrent escalation in the use of violence against those who have been targeted for their peaceful expression. Included among those facing a potential death sentence is writer, pro-democracy activist and PEN Myanmar member, Wai Moe Naing.

We, the undersigned PEN Centres, utterly condemn the military junta’s execution of Kyaw Min Yu and other pro-democracy activists. We call for the immediate and unconditional release of all those wrongfully detained for their peaceful expression in Myanmar:

• PEN International
• PEN Melbourne

For further information please contact Ross Holder, Asia Programme Coordinator at PEN International, Unit A, Koops Mill, 162-164 Abbey Street, London, SE1 2AN, Tel.+ 44 (0) 20 7405 0338, email: ross.holder@pen-international.org