Source: Hon Matthew Robson, Barrister, Former Associate Minister of Foreign Affairs
Open request to the Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern from Hon Matthew Robson, Barrister, Former Associate Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Dear Jacinda,
You will soon be headed for London. At the gathering will, of course, be many heads of states and other state representatives. It will be your chance to act for the freedom of Julian Assange who represents the best of values of the international labour movement. In particular the value of speaking out and exposing against the war crimes of those who would be the lords of this earth.
This in the tradition of those few brave representatives of the Socialist International, an institution whose values I know you hold dear as a former office holder, who gathered at Zimmerwald in 1915 to condemn the ancestors of those now assembled in nuclear armed NATO, who condemned millions of workers and their communities to the industrial scale slaughter of the world war. New Zealand soldiers were of course among the victims who were falsely told they were dying for ” King and Country”.
A Royal Pardon Request to King Charles III while in London
You are familiar with the persecution of Julian Assange as it has been brought to your attention many times.
But to refresh your memory I refer you to the words of eminent Swedish Professor Nils Melzer who as UN Rapporteur on Torture wrote in Der Fall Julian Assange ( The Trial of Julian Assange) as follows:
“In den zwanzig Jahren meinen Arbeit mit Opfern von Krieg, Gewalt und politischer Verfolfung habe ich noch nie erlebt , dass sich eine Gruppe demokratischer Staaten zusammenrottet , um eine Einzelperson uber so lange Zeit und mit so wenig Rucksicht auf Menschenwurde und Rechtsstaatlichkeit zu isolieren, zu damonisiern und zu misshandeln.”
” In twenty years of work with victims of war, violence and political persecution I have never seen a group of democratic States ganging up to deliberately isolate, demonise and abuse a single individual for such a long time and with so little regard for human dignity and the rule of law.”
Jacinda you, as a strong advocate of human rights, cannot be failed to be moved by these words of a leading UN human rights figure, the UN being an institution which you have put at the heart of your government’s foreign policy.
And you have such leverage on this pivotal human rights and press freedom issue as the key “democratic States ” instanced by the UN Rapporteur are in the Five or Extended Eyes.
You should also note , and you could confer with her in London, the words to the House of Commons on the day of Julian’s arrest in 2019 of your socialist colleague Dianne Abbot MP as Shadow Secretary :
“…the reason we are debating Julian Assange this afternoon – even though the only charge he may face in this country is in relation to his bail hearings – is entirely to do with his whistleblowing activities…into illegal wars , mass murder, murder of civilians and corruption on a grand scale that has put Julian Assange in the crosshairs of the US administration. It is for this reason that they have once more issued an extradition warrant against Julian Assange…(he) is not being pursued to protect UA national security. He is being pursued because he has exposed wrongdoing by US administrations and their military forces.”
Jacinda, your staff will be able to put together a full dossier on this case. But you already understand the monstrosity that is the prolonged persecution of this brave journalist and publisher who Has acted for all that is decent in this world and that we as international socialists and human rights defenders stand for.
In London you will be joined by Anthony Albanese . He is part of a cross party parliamentary group in the Federal Australian Parliament that has long called for the release of Julian.
Together ,and perhaps accompanied by the King’s representative in New Zealand , you will make a powerful delegation of Commonwealth leaders to the newly crowned King to strongly request that he exercise the Royal Prerogative of Mercy in favour of Julian Assange and have him released from Belmarsh Prison where he has been cruelly imprisoned since 2019.
This would be an enormous step for human rights and an auspicious start to the new reign.
And you would be putting into practice your advocacy of respect for the international rules-based order.
My best wishes for your humanitarian mission.
Matt
Hon Matthew Robson
Barrister
Former Associate Minister of Foreign Affairs
