Catch up on stories from the past week (and beyond) at the Slashdot story archive

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×
News

Julian Assange To Be Made Honorary Citizen of Rome (reuters.com) 97

Jailed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will become an honorary citizen of Rome by early next year following a vote this week by its local assembly, the city's former mayor Virginia Raggi said on Thursday. Reuters reports: Assange, 52, has been in London's high-security Belmarsh prison since 2019 and is wanted in the United States over the release of confidential U.S. military records and diplomatic cables in 2010. His supporters see his prosecution as a politically motivated assault on journalism and free speech. Washington says the release of secret documents put lives in danger.

The motion to make him a citizen of the Eternal City was spearheaded by Raggi, from the left-leaning Five Star Movement, and won cross-party support. "Assange is a symbol of free speech which is essential for any genuine democracy," Raggi, who ran Rome's city hall between 2016 and 2021, told Reuters. "He has been deprived of his own liberty for years, in awful conditions, for doing his job as a journalist," she said.

The motion was approved on Tuesday, kick-starting a process that Raggi said she hoped could be completed by Christmas but may take slightly longer. Other Italian cities have taken similar steps. The northern city of Reggio Emilia granted Assange citizenship last month, while Naples is set to follow shortly.
Further reading: Australian MPs To Lobby US To Drop Julian Assange Prosecution or Risk 'Very Dangerous' Precedent for Russia and China
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Julian Assange To Be Made Honorary Citizen of Rome

Comments Filter:
    • That was what I was wondering. Does this actually do anything or is like Monowi, Nebraska giving him an award.
      • My understanding is that it just an award by local government, giving him one line on his CV and a shiny medal to wear during public ceremonies. But if he sets in Rome, he still would be arrested and extradited to Sweden within 90 days on the basis of a European Warrant that Italy can't decline whatever the local government of Rome wants to say about it.

    • A United Nation General Assembly resolution would have a huge impact on him; it would mean 1) that more than 50% of the countries in the world approved terms favourable to Assange; 2) these countries likely comprise themselves in not abiding by the extradition terms, or promising to change their law to protect him and similar cases; 3) depending which countries join the resolution (at least 100 countries if we assume the resolution is approved), this would mean huge diplomatic pressure on UK for clemency, a

  • If he tried this on russia or china he would have been dead a decade ago.
  • But he has not served his ten years in the Legions

  • I thought this guy was dead.

  • by Miles_O'Toole ( 5152533 ) on Thursday October 19, 2023 @07:50PM (#63938175)

    "Washington says the release of secret documents put lives in danger."

    And the murderous US helicopter pilots exposed by WikiLeaks didn't put lives in danger? Give me a break!

  • That Julian Assange is the savior messiah. He’s a victim of mean bullies. He’s totally in the right. He’s never done anything wrong, He’s never been the dupe of any global power. Everything bad that’s ever been said about him is complete lies. His opinions carry more weight than God and he should be worshipped as the rightful pinnacle of mankind that he is.

    There, now I won’t get downmodded.
  • I thought Emperor Caracalla game Roman citizenship to to all free men throughout the Roman Empire.
  • by VeryFluffyBunny ( 5037285 ) on Friday October 20, 2023 @01:48AM (#63938605)
    ...Nineteen Eighty-four? How Winston was ground down & broken, with allegations of sex crimes & a full-blown state-sponsored character assassination, fully supported & cheered on by the media? Ring any bells?

    Don't you think it strange that the mere mention of Assange's name summons a tidal wave of defamatory remarks & attitudes. Who here will deny that they've responded like a weekly meeting of your local temperance movement, so full of self-righteous indignation & vitriol against someone for some vague, unclear reasons that they're really not all that sure about but they know he's a bad man really?

    I'm not a fan of Assange but I do see how, for a short while, he & Wikileaks actually brought more accountability to the most powerful & corrupt leaders on the world stage than anyone else in this era. We owe him a debt of gratitude for showing us that it can & should be done. He was an idiot for allowing the media & establishment to make it about him rather than the very important & consequential stories that they were uncovering.
    • by mjwx ( 966435 )

      ...Nineteen Eighty-four? How Winston was ground down & broken, with allegations of sex crimes & a full-blown state-sponsored character assassination, fully supported & cheered on by the media? Ring any bells?

      Don't you think it strange that the mere mention of Assange's name summons a tidal wave of defamatory remarks & attitudes. Who here will deny that they've responded like a weekly meeting of your local temperance movement, so full of self-righteous indignation & vitriol against someone for some vague, unclear reasons that they're really not all that sure about but they know he's a bad man really?

      I'm not a fan of Assange but I do see how, for a short while, he & Wikileaks actually brought more accountability to the most powerful & corrupt leaders on the world stage than anyone else in this era. We owe him a debt of gratitude for showing us that it can & should be done. He was an idiot for allowing the media & establishment to make it about him rather than the very important & consequential stories that they were uncovering.

      Firstly, I agree that the anti-Assange campaign has been a crock of shit from the word go and the useless toadies in the Australian Government are the most shameless bunch of wankers...

      But it's also pretty obvious that you've not read Nineteen Eighty-Four. Winston Smith starts out docile, controlled, trying to avoid attention. Then discovers rebellion and the final act of the book is party crushing that out of him. There wasn't a media campaign against him, he was constantly watched by the Telescreens.

      • Though not actually explicitly portrayed in the novel, i.e. left up to the reader's imagination, Winston was to be publicly vilified for his sex crimes, among other things. In real life, it tends to start with the public vilification & character assassination, so in that respect, Orwell got it wrong.
  • by SuperDre ( 982372 ) on Friday October 20, 2023 @05:05AM (#63938785) Homepage
    This is just ridiculous, Assange has no connection with Rome or Italy, so it's just pure media hype to get some attention drawn to herself. Stupid politicians should stop wasting time and spend it on actual problems in its city itself.

"I shall expect a chemical cure for psychopathic behavior by 10 A.M. tomorrow, or I'll have your guts for spaghetti." -- a comic panel by Cotham

Working...