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The fate of the free press is in your hands: join the Assange protest next week
JOHN REES explains why everyone who cares about civil liberties should rally for Assange as he faces his last chance in court
Supporters of Julian Assange at the Royal Courts of Justice after cycling through London as part of their campaign to release him. The WikiLeaks founder has been held in the prison for more than four years as he fights the United States government's efforts to extradite him, September 23, 2023

JULIAN ASSANGE’S very last chance to escape extradition to the US will happen next week in the Royal Courts of Justice.

There could not be more at stake in a single court case than there is in the Assange case. The right of journalists to report the facts that governments and corporations don’t wish to have revealed will be virtually criminalised if the extradition of Assange is successful.

The continued persecution of Assange, who has just spent his fifth Christmas in Belmarsh prison, is part of a wider attack on civil liberties by the Tories.

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