Almost 600,000 People Voted An Online Petition In Support of Julian Assange

About 600,000 people signed on Monday an online petition in support of the whistleblower website WikiLeaks’ founder Julian Assange, ahead of his second appearance before a court in London where his extradition to Sweden is to be decided.

The petition on www.avvaz.org calls on the United States and the other countries to stop the crackdown on WikiLeaks and its partners, and to observe the laws about freedom of speech.

The same campaigning website that hosts the petition says that the “vicious campaign on WikiLeaks is a dangerous attack on the freedom of speech,” and protests the fact that some U.S. politicians have branded WikiLeaks as a terrorist organization and urged corporations to shut the site down.

Avvaz says that legal experts consider that WikiLeaks broke no law and deems their petition as a defense of the basic democratic freedoms.

At 16:00 GMT time Avvaz’s petition had already reached 594,000 signatures from people all over the world.

Assange is expected to be brought before the same court, City of Westminster Magistrates Court, which will decide on his extradition to Sweden, where he is to face charges of sexual nature.

Last week, Assange appeared before the same court where he was denied bail, but the judge said he was ready to see more eveidence in support of the accusations brought against him before making a final decision.

The reason for denying his bail was that he was a flight risk.

An organization called Stop The War Coalition, which is expected to organize a rally in front of the Londonese court, demands Assange’s immediate release and the drop of all charges against him.

On Monday, about 15 people demonstrated for Assange in front of the Swedish embassy in London.

Assange came under a lot of pressure after publishing some 250,000 documents pertaining to the U.S. diplomacy, in an action that has already been called “Cablegate.”

The release placed the United States in a very delicate spot and determined the authorities to apologize to the prejudiced countries.

Soon after the release of the documents, different organizations banned the website from their servers, or closed its accounts, prompting many people around the world to come to Assange’s defense.

Julian Assange surrendered to the British Police on December 7, and is expected to be extradite to Sweden, where he is to face the charges of sexual assault against two Swedish women.

U.S. law experts think there could be grounds for indicting Assange on American soil for crimes against national security, though it would be difficult to make a case out of it.

Furthermore, the problem could be complicated by an extradition in Sweden, since the Scandinavian country does not extradite people who are accused politically or on military grounds.

For that reason, some American experts have advanced the idea of taking Assange to the United States while he is still the UK, thus taking advantage of the good relations between the two countries.

Assange cannot depend too much on the government of his country either. Though the former Australian PM Kevin Rudd said that the leaks are to be blame on the United States national security’s flaws, the Australian government is willing to cooperate with the U.S. government to contain the situation.

Meanwhile, a dissent team from the WikiLeaks is getting ready to start and launch a parallel whistle-blowing website called OpenLeaks, intended to be some soft version of the renowned WikiLeaks.

If you are a person who wishes to support Assange you may vote for him on http://www.avaaz.org/en/wikileaks_petition/97.php?cl_tta_sign=1ae3d988c110f895603634a095fa30f3.