Jeremy Corbyn lauds Julian Assange, asks UK President Boris Johnson to halt extradition

United Kingdom Parliament raked up extradition of WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange, who is facing espion charges by United States. Opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn, on floor of House, asked UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson if rights of journalists and whistleblowers will be protected in country. Corbyn backed MPs on Council of Europe, who warned that Assange's extradition "sets a dangerous precedent for journalists." 

Calling to oppose extradition to United States, Corbyn, he said, " deep disparity with US is about to be laid bare, when Court decides, wher WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange will be extradited on charges of espion for exposing war crimes, murder of civilians, and large scale corruption. Will Prime Minister agree with Parliamentary report that's going to Council of Europe, that this extradition should be opposed and rights of journalists and whistleblowers are held for good of all of us."  

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In response to Corbyn, Boris Johnson refused to comment on an 'individual case' of Julian Assange, however, asserted that rights of 'whistleblowers and journalists should be upheld.' He said, "I am t going to comment on any individual case, but it is obvious that rights of journalists and whistleblowers should be upheld in this country and this government will clearly continue to do that." 

Julian Assange Case

48-year-old whistleblower currently imprisoned in Belmarsh is slapped with 18 charges in United States including Espion Act, for conspiring to gain access into US military secrets between January and May 2010. If convicted, he will face upto 175 years in US prison. Julian Assange was holed up in London's Ecudorian embassy for seven years, until he was dragged out by UK Police. He took refuge in a small office converted into a bedroom. 47-year-old lived re with his cat.

Wikileaks, an anti-secrecy organisation, was founded in 2006 as a platform for whistleblowers to release classified information anymously. By 2015, Wikileaks became a portal to publish over 10 million documents, including top-secret documents.  Ever since its launch in 2006, Wikileaks has published thousands of classified documents, disclosing details from national security, war, politics to film industry. In 2010, as per published files of WikiLeaks, Congress' Rahul Gandhi told n US Ambassador at lunch that Hindu extremists groups post a greater threat to his country than Muslim terrorists. 

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