Julian Assange, founder and editor of whistleblowing organization WikiLeaks, on Sunday marked his fourth year as a resident at the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
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Mr Assange has been living inside the embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden where he is wanted for questioning over a sex allegation, which he denies.
Assange denies the rape charges and has fought against being extradited to Sweden, saying he fears he would then be transferred to the USA to face charges on Wikileaks’ activities. Since then, the site has released millions of classified diplomatic documents from around the world on espionage practices, war crimes, torture and many other human rights violations.
Speakers will include renowned journalist and host of Democracy Now!, Amy Goodman; Pulitzer Prize winning author and journalist Chris Hedges; Julian Assange’s United States defense lawyer Carey Shenkman; acclaimed civil rights attorney Margaret Ratner; founding editor of The Intercept, Jeremy Scahil; and Julian Assange himself, live from London via videoconference. Assange will join the event live from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.
Listed participants in Sunday ” s anniversary events include Patti Smith, Brian Eno, PJ Harvey, Noam Chomsky, Yanis Varoufakis, Ai Weiwei, Vivienne Westwood, Michael Moore and Ken Loach.
“We live in a critical time”.
The global event will run from June 19 to June 25.
“It is very important that the United Kingdom should abide by and respect the UN working group’s decision”, he added.
But he said there were no regrets about the decision to offer Mr Assange refuge.
Mr Swire said: “Four years after voluntarily entering the Ecuadorean Embassy, Julian Assange remains there, with a European Arrest Warrant in connection with a serious sexual offence allegation still outstanding”.
“The UK is bad for the EU, but also the EU is bad for the UK because it permits a lack of democratic accountability in this country by permitting successive governments in this country to simply say “oh, we are forced into doing things because of EU legislation” when it is precisely these governments that have been behind the EU legislation in the first place”.
The UN Working Group concluded that the WikiLeaks founder “is entitled to his freedom of movement and to compensation”.
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London and Stockholm have angrily disputed the group ” s findings.
