Wikileaks' Julian Assange "is being framed" says his mother, Christine Assange

Source:   A composite photo of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and his mother Christine. (Leon Neal - AFP)

WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange ‘is being framed’ says his mother

The mother of Julian Assange, the founder of the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks, has warned that her son is being framed over sexual assault allegations.

Speaking to Australia’s ABC North Coast NSW, Christine Assange said, “The facts show that Julian is being framed and because I’m able to prove that, that gives me extra anger over what’s happening and justice is a very good fueller of action and strength.”

In an interview with ABC’s Joanne Shoebridge, Assange clarified her assertion of her son’s innocence. She said, “I’m not just fighting for Julian because he’s my son [but because] I’ve investigated this case probably more than any other journalist in Australia because I’m his mother and I have the time and the interest.”

WikiLeaks was founded by Julian Assange in 2006. The US soldier Bradley Manning is currently awaiting court-martial hearings in the American state of Virginia. This follows his arrest in 2010 on suspicion, and later being charged with, having passed restricted material to the website. Yesterday, Digital Journal reported that Juan Mendez, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, had “formally accused the US government of ‘cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment’ towards [Manning]".

Baracktracking

In 2011, in an article in the Morning Star, President Barack Obama was quoted from a speech he gave in 2008 while running for the White House. During that speech, the then Senator Obama said: “Government whistleblowers are part of a healthy democracy and must be protected from reprisal.”

However, since taking office in 2009, Obama has backtracked on his own words, as the investigative journalist John Pilger pointed out in an article he wrote for the New Statesman last year: “Obama has pursued and prosecuted more whistleblowers than any other president in US history”.

Meanwhile, Assange himself is waiting to hear whether the UK Supreme Court has upheld his appeal against the Swedish authority’s request for him to be extradited to Sweden, where he is accused of sexual molestation. Assange and his supporters fear that the extradition request is simply a ploy by the Swedish government to bow to the United States for him to be sent there to be prosecuted on charges relating to the publication of military documents on the WikiLeaks website in 2010.

Journalism award

In November 2011, as reported by Digital Journal, WikiLeaks won the Walkley Foundation “Most Outstanding Contribution to Journalism” award. On making the award, the Walkley Trustees said, “WikiLeaks applied new technology to penetrate the inner workings of government to reveal an avalanche of inconvenient truths in a global publishing coup.” The aims of the Walkley Foundation are to “support and encourage professional and ethical journalism and promote and reward excellence in the Australian media”.

Source:

http://digitaljournal.com/article/321121