World Press Freedom Day
Freedom for Julian Assange
3. May – World Press Freedom Day 2020 and Campaigns4Whistleblower - worldwide
1
3. May 2020
OPEN LETTER
to the/the/the
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
Michelle Bachelet Jeria
UN Special Rapporteur on Torture
Prof. Nils Melzer
Permanent Representative of Germany to the United Nations in New York
Ambassador Dr. Christoph Heusgen
European Parliament
President David Sassoli
Chairmen and members of the Committee of the European Parliament
LIBE - Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs
Chairman of the Committee Juan Fernando López Aguilar
Federal President Federal Republic of Germany
Dr. Frank-Walter Steinmeier
President of the German Bundestag
Dr. Wolfgang Schäuble
Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany
Dr. Angela Merkel
Chairmen of the parliamentary groups in the German Bundestag
Dr Alice Weidel, Amira Mohamed Ali, Katrin Göring-Eckardt, Dr Alexander Gauland, Dr
Dietmar Bartsch, Dr Anto Hofreiter, Christian Lindner, Ralph Brinkhaus, Rolf Mützenich
committee members
Committee on Foreign Affairs, Committee on Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid,
Committee on European Union Affairs Committee on Culture and the Media
To all members of the German Bundestag

World Press Freedom Day
Freedom for Julian Assange
3. May – World Press Freedom Day 2020 and Campaigns4Whistleblower - worldwide
2
Dear Madams and Sirs,
03.05.2020 is the International Press Freedom Day. Also on this day, the award-winning
Australian journalist and Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assange will be held in the high security
prison Belmarsh in London (Great Britain) - contrary to Article 19 of the Declaration of
Universal Human Rights, the right to freedom of opinion and expression.
Despite his pre-existing lung conditions, the increased risk of contracting Covid 19 and
ultimately dying from it, Julian Assange is held there as a political prisoner. WITHOUT a
court order, Julian Assange is deprived of his freedom and sits there in PREVENTIVE
PRISON.
The USA demands his extradition, for this reason alone an un convicted journalist sits in the
highest security prison in Great Britain.
According to the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Prof. Nils Melzer, the number of legal
infractions and breaches of law (alteration of witness statements, poisoning plans,
espionage), which were and are being committed by authorities and state actors of several
countries in secret collusion (as partly documented by the original documents of the Swedish
files or statements of employees of the security company UC Global working in the
Ecuadorian embassy) in order to capture Julian Assange, cannot be compared to any other
case known to him. This injustice screams to heaven.
On Press Freedom Day, it is vital to draw attention to Assange's judicial scandal, which sets
a precedent that will override our most fundamental rights and will go down in history - one
way or another.
This precedent means that in the future any country could arbitrarily prosecute any journalist.
Regardless of the country in which they live, work or their nationality. If they report about
China or Qatar or Iran, that country could request their prosecution and extradition. Do you
want that? Is that how you imagine the future of journalism? We do not!
Please bear in mind that an international, award-winning, investigative journalist is being held
illegally! Julian Assange's life is endangered day after day, despite repeated and continuous
warnings from various UN bodies, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, more than 200
medical doctors* worldwide, various lawyers' and journalists' associations and organizations,
as well as numerous other supporters*, and that he faces 175 years in prison or the death
penalty if extradited to the USA.
The lawyer and chairwoman of the Swedish Bar Association Anne Ramberg has aptly put it
this way:
"Should we extradite someone to Nazi Germany who has proven the existence of
concentration camps and genocide? I don't think so..."
That is what this case is all about.

World Press Freedom Day
Freedom for Julian Assange
3. May – World Press Freedom Day 2020 and Campaigns4Whistleblower - worldwide
3
Worse still, if Julian Assange's basic rights to freedom and life are ignored by the STATE or
the world community, then everyone in the world can suffer the same fate, human rights and
the United Nations are devalued into an incredible political façade.
At the beginning of the (show) trial against Julian Assange human rights activists from all
over the world were together in front of the high security prison in Belmarsh. Throughout the
hearings from 24 to 27 February 2020, we were deeply shocked by the contempt and lack of
empathy with which Julian Assange is being treated. It is not the brave journalists who
uncover war crimes who should be in the dock, but the war criminals - who kill innocent
civilians! As you have hopefully heard, the accusations from Sweden have turned out to be
an unsubstantiated construct, and the more than shaky accusation from the USA is about
espionage and a (failed!) attempt to crack a password. Does this justify the cruel, inhuman
treatment of Julian Assange and the prospect of 175 years in solitary confinement or death
penalty?
Britain, the motherland of the Magna Carta Libertatum, is in the process of destroying at a
stroke fundamental and human rights that have lasted for over 700 years (!). Article 29 of the
Magna Carta states: "No free man shall be abducted or imprisoned or have his property or
his rules or his habits expropriated, ostracized or exiled or otherwise destroyed; nor shall we
pass on or condemn him except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.
We will not sell, deny or hinder law or justice to anyone." It is precisely this right that will fall if
Julian Assange is prosecuted further or even extradited to the USA.
We therefore call on the above-mentioned institutions of the international community to place
Julian Assange in particular under the protection of the United Nations and to condemn the
war crimes of the governments of the United States of America.
We also call upon the governing coalition of the Federal Republic of Germany consisting of
the CDU/CSU and SPD, the parliamentary groups and all members of the Bundestag to
become aware of the responsibility that Germany assumes with its chairmanship of the UN
Security Council and thus for the enforcement of universal human rights worldwide and to act
accordingly.
We demand the immediate and unconditional release of Julian Assange and Asylum in
a country of his choice! With Julian Assange the idea of the rule of law and democracy
stands and falls.
Mathias Tretschog – Free Journalist (Germany)
Campaigns4Assange and worldwide support of human rights organisations and peace
activists
www.free-whistleblower.jimdofree.com/open-letter-world-press-freedom-day-2020