By Lucy Komisar
Aug 31, 2020

Robin Des Lois, a French organization that works for the rights of prison inmates around the world, today sent a letter to President Trump asking him to drop charges against Julian Assange based on his revelations of U.S. war crimes in Afghanistan.

Freedom for Assange is supported by the French Justice Minister, but not by the French President.

The letter said, The Association Robin des Lois believes those charges are quite old and are related to a past of the United States, whose face has radically changed since then. Over the last 4 years, thanks to your administration, acts of war have ceased. It may be time for you and the U.S. authorities to drop the charges against Assange.

The letter, signed by the group’s lawyer Emmanuel Ludot, said, “In these electoral times, it would be a political decision hailed by the whole world.” He enclosed the petition in a letter to U.S. Ambassador in Paris, Jamie McCourt.

The American action in the UK to extradite Assange to the U.S. goes to court again Sept. 7^th.

The group‘s campaign to support Assange was reported ten days ago in the French daily Le Monde which said it had asked the French government to grant him asylum.

French Minister of Justice ‰ric Dupond-Moretti August 20th attended the press conference calling on France to grant political asylum to Julian Assange. Dupond-Moretti is a prominent criminal defense lawyer who became minister of justice in July.

Dupond-Moretti, who met Assange in his London prison in the winter, had asked in February for such political asylum in the name of freedom of the press. He said the American demands for 65 years imprisonment violated standards of human rights.

Robin Des Lois, working with Assange‘s father John Shipton, August 17th asked the ministry to ask that the French State take the initiative to offer Julian Assange political asylum. It said that the political and legal conditions are apparently met for such a status to benefit the most famous political prisoner in the world today.

The Macron government took no action. Le Monde article.

At that time, Ludot said that, “Assange had revealed the reverse of an America of a changed time that no longer represents the United States.” He said to Macron that giving exile to Assange would represent “a magnificent initiative in favor of human rights that would be hailed by the world.” He said the European Union rules about extradition do not apply to the UK after Dec 31^st, but till then extradition could violate asylum granted by another EU country.