A group of prominent Swiss lawyers, including Edward Snowden’s, have penned a letter demanding that their government grant asylum to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
The letter is signed by Snowden’s lawyer in Switzerland, Marcel Bosonnet, as well as human right’s attorney Philip Stolkin, Bernard Rambert, Swiss Congressman Carlo Sommaruga, and Andreas Noll.
Their demand was initially broadcast on in prime time on national television, but they are not stopping there. Their appeal also ran in major newspapers for World Press Freedom Day on Friday.
In the powerful letter, written in German, the group urges their government to consider the fact that WikiLeaks’ work defended the fundamental values of the Swiss Constitution of 1848, namely the freedom of press, the freedom of speech and opinion and democracy.
The author of the letter, Noll, told the Gateway Pundit that “the core achievement of our western constitutions, the Swiss constitution of 1848 as well as the American of 1776 and the French of 1789, is the taming of power by law. And by power I mean brute force. If governments can break the law – fundamental international conventions such as the UN’s Geneva Refugee Convention of 1951 and the European Convention on Human Rights of 1950 – law erodes from inside out to a mere mantle, which is but abused by power as a cloak to muffle its brute face in.”
The letter explains that he is persecuted by the US only because he did his work and duty as a journalist in democratic society by exposing war crimes.
“The goal of the US prosecution against Assange is to completely transform the media’s function as public watchdog into such as a public lapdog. Under the threat of torture and death the media is barred out from its democratic domain of opinion making and pushed into the autocratic task to entertain through ‘panem et circenses’ – bread and circuses. If Julian Assange is not saved from the American claws, this will quite probably be the end to western achievements of civil liberties, which henceforth only exist as long as the individuals are not in need of them. But the concept of individual civil rights is just the other way round: Of all things, they shall prove valid in the case of conflict. If they don’t, jurisdiction everts to a process of juris-abdiction,” Noll explained.
When asked about what lead him to write the letter, Noll explained that he was moved to action after seeing the award-winning publisher and 2019 Nobel Peace Prize nominee dragged from the Ecuadorian embassy in London where he had previously been granted asylum.
“After Julian was dragged form the embassy on the day of my birthday, I wrote an email to Marcel Bosonnet, Snowden’s lawyer, whom I knew from a trial we fought together. He supported the idea of an appeal, but had no time for the moment. So I drafted the appeal and sent it to Philip Stolkin, who is a famous attorney for human rights. He came aboard as well. So one thing lead to the other and we encouraged our fellow colleagues to sign the appeal. Finally we had a bunch of respectable lawyers who stood up for Julian, amongst others a University professor for criminal law (Marcel Niggli), a former Supreme Court president (Giusep Nay) and a member of the Swiss Congress (Carlo Sommaruga),” Noll told the Gateway Pundit.
Dear Reader - The enemies of freedom are choking off the Gateway Pundit from the resources we need to bring you the truth. Since many asked for it, we now have a way for you to support The Gateway Pundit directly - and get ad-reduced access. Plus, there are goodies like a special Gateway Pundit coffee mug for supporters at a higher level. You can see all the options by clicking here - thank you for your support!
