On the occasion of his birthday, the followers of the Australian journalist, human rights organizations and dozens of politicians from around the world redoubled their calls to British authorities to release him, at least until the process is complete.

Today, Julian Assange will spend his 50th birthday in a maximum security prison. The imprisonment of a journalist by the United Kingdom (and efforts by the United States to extradite him) demonstrates that both governments are determined to suppress the uncomfortable truth, former British Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn wrote on Twitter.

The veteran politician also showed up this week with two co-religionists at Belmarsh prison to deliver a letter to prison authorities to demand to be allowed to meet the WikiLeaks founder.

Assange has been in prison since he was arrested at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London in April 2019, after an asylum of almost seven years in that diplomatic mission for fear of being handed over to US prosecutors.

The United States wants to extradite him and bring him to court on 17 charges of espionage and one of conspiracy to commit computer hacking, after posting secret files that exposed war crimes committed by US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, and thousands of diplomatic cables from the Department of State.

jg/lcr/mem/nm