Robin Barnett CMG, Sarah Tiffin

British Embassy Dublin

29 Merrion Road
Ballsbridge
Dublin 4
Ireland

9th December 2019

 

Your excellency Robin Barnett CMG and Sarah Tiffin,

 

On December 10th on the occasion of International Human Rights Day 2019, we the undersigned wish to protest the unlawful detention and torture of Australian citizen Julian Assange at Belmarsh Prison London.

We respectfully call on your moral conscience as representatives of her Majesty the Queen and of the government of the United Kingdom to request the immediate release of Julian Assange.

On September 22 Julian Assange's sentence for a bail violation ended, yet he was not released from Belmarsh Prison. Julian Assange is now being held without charge for any crime or misdemeanour. The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Nils Melzer has stated  that Julian's detention has no legal basis and on November 1st  called on the British authorities to release Assange immediately out of serious concern for his life. The sole reason for his continued imprisonment is the US request for extradition for a political offence. The UK's own law prohibits extradition for political offence.

Insofar as Human Rights Day marks the fundamental human rights of all people, it also acknowledges the role of the UN in working to preserve and protect these universal rights. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has twice called (4 Dec 2015 & 21 Dec 2018) on the Government of the United Kingdom to restore Julian Assange's right to personal liberty. As their recommendations have so far been ignored it is worth reflecting on what this means for the credibility of the British State as a member of the UN Human Rights Council and as a state that claims to observe the rule of law.

As a member of the UN Human Rights Council, the United Kingdom shares responsibility for the promotion and protection of all human rights across the globe. It is therefore reprehensible that an individual who has won multiple awards for his contributions to both journalism and human rights, is being crushed at the behest of the British Government.  Please stop this.

Julian Assange continues to suffer the effects of being kept in solitary confinement for 22-23 hours a day at Belmarsh High Security Prison since April 11th 2019. The effects of solitary confinement for over 15 days are widely accepted to constitute torture. The effects of psychological damage can be permanent.

We the undersigned request the immediate unconditional release of Julian Assange .

We the undersigned request the immediate removal of Julian Assange from the cruel and inhuman conditions of solitary confinement in a high security prison to an ordinary prison until the time of his release.

We the undersigned request the immediate return of his own personal clothes or the provision of civilian clothes to remove the further psychologically damaging effect of wearing a prison uniform. Julian Assange is not a convicted criminal, in fact he has committed no crime.

I would urge you, your Excellency, Robin Barnett and Sarah Tiffin, to convey this message of deep concern for the wellbeing of the prisoner Julian Assange, to her majesty the Queen, to the British Home Office, to Priti Patel Home Secretary and the entire U.K. Government. We are calling for you to please end this shocking travesty of human rights and justice and reinstate the freedom of Julian Assange who is now in his ninth month of solitary confinement.

Yours sincerely,

 

 

 

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