The City of Melbourne could honour convicted WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and welcome him to Town Hall to promote the council’s commitment to human rights and celebrate his “contribution to humanity”.
In an agenda item seen by the Sunday Herald Sun, Cr Dr Olivia Ball will put forward a motion to the Future Melbourne Committee to commemorate Assange’s “freedom from arbitrary detention” on Tuesday.
Assange returned to Australia last week after pleading guilty to the single charge of conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defence information under the US Espionage Act.
His homecoming follows an extraordinary, more than a decade-long legal battle, which included five years in London’s Belmarsh Prison.
Dr Ball said the 53-year-old’s long-awaited release was a “great occasion for Melbourne to celebrate the homecoming of one of its citizens”.
Cr Dr Olivia Ball is pushing to host a civic reception for convicted WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange.
“(It’s also a time to) reaffirm Melbourne’s commitment to human rights, not just in defence of freedom of the press, but in defence of whistleblowers who take huge personal risks to expose the truth about serious wrongdoing,” she wrote in the motion.
“No-one should be treated as Mr Assange has been: in solitary confinement for years, in conditions the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture described as torture.
Herald Sun Extract
