(Paris) The French National Assembly on Friday rejected a proposed cross-partisan resolution calling on the government to grant refugee status in France to the founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, imprisoned in London and threatened with extradition to the United States.
Posted at 7:11 p.m.
The text examined on Friday had only symbolic significance, as it was not binding. He nevertheless received the support of candidates for the presidential election, the communist Fabien Roussel and the leader of the radical left Jean-Luc Mélenchon, of ecologist and centrist deputies, of a socialist and of a handful of elected majority.
The examination of this resolution took place a few days after an agreement between the Assembly and the Senate around a bill for better protection of whistleblowers in France.
Despite the vehemence and lyricism of pro-Assange speakers, MPs voted against the resolution by 17 votes in favor and 31 against.
“Today is a victory. We give back a voice to those who no longer have one”, however welcomed the deputy who defended the text, Jennifer de Temmerman, about Mr. Assange imprisoned in the United Kingdom since 2019 after having spent seven years in the embassy. London from Ecuador where he had taken refuge.
Julian Assange is claimed by the American justice which charged him under the anti-espionage laws. He faces 175 years in prison for having allowed the publication of tens of thousands of confidential documents, in particular on American operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.
“He denounced barbaric acts and unspeakable blunders that had to be made public”, greeted the communist Stéphane Peu.
Elected representatives of the majority rejected the text, arguing “disputed points” of the resolution, in particular of a legal and diplomatic nature.