WIKILEAKS - ASSANGE ENTREVISTADO POR THE GUARDIAN

Julian Assange: my fate will rest in Cameron's hands if US charges me

iWikiLeaks founder says it would be 'politically impossible' for Britain to extradite him to the US

• Luke Harding
• guardian.co.uk, Thursday 23 December 2010 20.20 GMT
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WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange outside Beccles police station in Suffolk, which he has to visit every day as one of the terms of his bail. Photograph: Paul Hackett/Reuters

Julian Assange said today that it would be "politically impossible" for Britain to extradite him to the United States, and that the final word on his fate if he were charged with espionage would rest with David Cameron.

In an interview with the Guardian in Ellingham Hall, the Norfolk country mansion where he is living under virtual house arrest, the founder of WikiLeaks said it would be difficult for the prime minister to hand him over to the Americans if there was strong support for him from the British people.

"It's all a matter of politics. We can presume there will be an attempt to influence UK political opinion, and to influence the perception of our standing as a moral actor," he said.

Assange is currently fighting extradition to Sweden. He strongly denies allegations of sexual misconduct with two Swedish women. But he believes the biggest threat to his freedom and to WikiLeaks, his whistleblowing website, emanates from a wrathful United States.

There is no evidence of any imminent US move to indict him. But according to Assange, the Obama administration is "trying to strike a plea deal" with Bradley Manning, the 23-year-old intelligence officer and alleged source of the more than a quarter of a million US diplomatic cables embarrassingly leaked last month. The US attorney general, Eric Holder, wants to indict Assange as a co-conspirator and is also examining "computer hacking statutes and support for terrorism", Assange claims.

Sitting in front of a log fire, his Apple MacBook Pro perched on his lap, Assange said his recent nine-day spell in Wandsworth jail had prepared him for the possibility that he might spend a long period in prison if indicted by the US. He said the prospect of solitary confinement was no longer an "intellectual abstraction" but a reality. The high court bailed him to Norfolk last Thursday, with his extradition hearing scheduled for 6-7 February.

He said: "Solitary confinement is very difficult. But I know that provided there is some opportunity for correspondence I can withstand it. I'm mentally robust. Of course it would mean the end of my life in the conventional sense."

If the US succeeded in removing him from the UK or Sweden, Assange said there was a "high chance" of him being killed "Jack Ruby-style" in the US prison system.

Since moving to Ellingham Hall, a Georgian country house and organic farm owned by his friend and supporter Vaughan Smith, Assange has given numerous media interviews. But he said he was fed up with the press and described an interview with BBC Radio 4's Today programme – in which John Humphrys grilled him on how many people he had slept with – as "awful".

Assange also took issue with a lengthy report in Saturday's Guardian setting out the prosecution allegations against him in Sweden. Assange acknowledged that the Guardian had a right to publish the material, dealing with his alleged encounters with the women. But he said it had been "sub-selected" and not placed properly in context. Swedish prosecutors have demanded that he return to Sweden to face further questions about the allegations.

Assange also said WikiLeaks did not have enough money to pay its legal bills, even though "a lot of generous lawyers have donated their time to us". He said legal costs for WikiLeaks and his own defence were approaching £500,000. The decisions by Visa, MasterCard and PayPal to stop processing donations to WikiLeaks – apparently following US pressure – had robbed the website of a "war chest" of around €500,000, he complained. This would have been enough to fund WikiLeaks' publishing operations for six months. At its peak the organisation was receiving €100,000 a day, he said.

According to publishing sources, however, Assange can take cheer from the fact that he has secured a seven-figure advance for a book about WikiLeaks and his life story. The sources suggest he is likely to receive £250,000 himself, allowing him to pay off some of his debts and to settle his personal defence fund, currently "paralysed". The book is to be published in the spring by Knopf in the US and Canongate in the UK, the sources suggest.

Assange – who has to wear his electronic tag in the bath, and report every day to Beccles police station – confessed he has no idea where he will be in a year's time. He described the next chapter in his life as "not yet predictable.

"Legally the UK has the right to not extradite for political crimes. Espionage is the classic case of political crimes. It is at the discretion of the UK government as to whether to apply to that exception."

He argued that Cameron and Nick Clegg were in a stronger position than the previous, Labour government to resist his extradition by Washington. "There is a new government, which wants to show it hasn't yet been co-opted by the US," he said, claiming that the security services – British and Australian – had a history of spying on and unduly influencing Labour politicians.

Many WikiLeaks supporters have now gone home for Christmas, leaving Assange with a scaled-down team over the holiday period, on an estate where the pheasant and grouse greatly outnumber the humans.

His immediate plan, he said, was to rest after a gruelling couple of months and then to continue with the staged global release of redacted US state department cables in the new year. Physically, he appeared somewhat wrung out, although very much composed and in good spirits.

Assange defended one of WikiLeaks' collaborators, Israel Shamir, following claims Shamir passed sensitive cables to Belarus's dictator, Alexander Lukashenko. Lukashenko has arrested 600 opposition supporters and journalists since Sunday's presidential election. The whereabouts and fate of several of the president's high-profile opponents are unknown.

Of Shamir, Assange said: "WikiLeaks works with hundreds of journalists from different regions of the world. All are required to sign non-disclosure agreements and are generally only given limited review access to material relating to their region. We have no reason to believe these rumours in relation to Belarus are true."

Over the past month the Guardian has published more than 200 articles based on the trove of US diplomatic dispatches obtained by WikiLeaks, and 739 of the cables themselves. All cables published by the Guardian and the four other international news organisations who had exclusive early access to the material have been carefully redacted to protect sources who could be placed in danger, and the redacted versions have been passed to WikiLeaks.

WikiLeaks now plans to begin sharing the cables with a wider group of regional news organisations. Julian Assange says all future cables released by WikiLeaks will either be redacted by other partner news organisations, or by WikiLeaks itself. The Guardian and its partners in the project, the New York Times, Der Spiegel, El Pais and Le Monde, will continue to share redactions with WikiLeaks for any cables they publish in future.

• guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2010

"VIOLENCIA DE GÉNERO" NO IMPUGNADA EN ESPAÑA

Sweden: the full allegations against Julian Assange

Unseen police documents provide the first complete account of the allegations against the WikiLeaks founder

• Nick Davies
• guardian.co.uk, Friday 17 December 2010 21.30 GMT
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Julian Assange at Ellingham Hall. Photograph: Paul Hackett/Reuters

Documents seen by the Guardian reveal for the first time the full details of the allegations of rape and sexual assault that have led to extradition hearings against the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange.

The case against Assange, which has been the subject of intense speculation and dispute in mainstream media and on the internet, is laid out in police material held in Stockholm to which the Guardian received unauthorised access.

Assange, who was released on bail on Thursday, denies the Swedish allegations and has not formally been charged with any offence. The two Swedish women behind the charges have been accused by his supporters of making malicious complaints or being "honeytraps" in a wider conspiracy to discredit him.

Assange's UK lawyer, Mark Stephens, attributed the allegations to "dark forces", saying: "The honeytrap has been sprung ... After what we've seen so far you can reasonably conclude this is part of a greater plan." The journalist John Pilger dismissed the case as a "political stunt" and in an interview with ABC news, Assange said Swedish prosecutors were withholding evidence which suggested he had been "set up."

However, unredacted statements held by prosecutors in Stockholm, along with interviews with some of the central characters, shed fresh light on the hotly disputed sequence of events that has become the centre of a global storm.

Stephens has repeatedly complained that Assange has not been allowed to see the full allegations against him, but it is understood his Swedish defence team have copies of all the documents seen by the Guardian.

The allegations centre on a 10-day period after Assange flew into Stockholm on Wednesday 11 August. One of the women, named in court as Miss A, told police that she had arranged Assange's trip to Sweden, and let him stay in her flat because she was due to be away. She returned early, on Friday 13 August, after which the pair went for a meal and then returned to her flat.

Her account to police, which Assange disputes, stated that he began stroking her leg as they drank tea, before he pulled off her clothes and snapped a necklace that she was wearing. According to her statement she "tried to put on some articles of clothing as it was going too quickly and uncomfortably but Assange ripped them off again". Miss A told police that she didn't want to go any further "but that it was too late to stop Assange as she had gone along with it so far", and so she allowed him to undress her.

According to the statement, Miss A then realised he was trying to have unprotected sex with her. She told police that she had tried a number of times to reach for a condom but Assange had stopped her by holding her arms and pinning her legs. The statement records Miss A describing how Assange then released her arms and agreed to use a condom, but she told the police that at some stage Assange had "done something" with the condom that resulted in it becoming ripped, and ejaculated without withdrawing.

When he was later interviewed by police in Stockholm, Assange agreed that he had had sex with Miss A but said he did not tear the condom, and that he was not aware that it had been torn. He told police that he had continued to sleep in Miss A's bed for the following week and she had never mentioned a torn condom.

On the following morning, Saturday 14 August, Assange spoke at a seminar organised by Miss A. A second woman, Miss W, had contacted Miss A to ask if she could attend. Both women joined Assange, the co-ordinator of the Swedish WikiLeaks group, whom we will call "Harold", and a few others for lunch.

Assange left the lunch with Miss W. She told the police that she and Assange had visited the place where she worked and had then gone to a cinema where they had moved to the back row. He had kissed her and put his hands inside her clothing, she said.

That evening, Miss A held a party at her flat. One of her friends, "Monica", later told police that during the party Miss A had told her about the ripped condom and unprotected sex. Another friend told police that during the evening Miss A told her that she had had "the worst sex ever" with Assange: "Not only had it been the world's worst screw, it had also been violent."

Assange's supporters have pointed out that, despite her complaints against him, Miss A held a party for him on that evening and continued to allow him to stay in her flat.

On Sunday 15 August, Monica told police, Miss A told her that she thought Assange had torn the condom on purpose. According to Monica, Miss A said Assange was still staying in her flat but they were not having sex because he had "exceeded the limits of what she felt she could accept" and she did not feel safe.

The following day, Miss W phoned Assange and arranged to meet him late in the evening, according to her statement. The pair went back to her flat in Enkoping, near Stockholm. Miss W told police that though they started to have sex, Assange had not wanted to wear a condom, and she had moved away because she had not wanted unprotected sex. Assange had then lost interest, she said, and fallen asleep. However, during the night, they had both woken up and had sex at least once when "he agreed unwillingly to use a condom".

Early the next morning, Miss W told police, she had gone to buy breakfast before getting back into bed and falling asleep beside Assange. She had awoken to find him having sex with her, she said, but when she asked whether he was wearing a condom he said no. "According to her statement, she said: 'You better not have HIV' and he answered: 'Of course not,' " but "she couldn't be bothered to tell him one more time because she had been going on about the condom all night. She had never had unprotected sex before."

The police record of the interview with Assange in Stockhom deals only with the complaint made by Miss A. However, Assange and his lawyers have have repeatedly stressed that he denies any kind of wrongdoing in relation to Miss W.

In submissions to the Swedish courts, they have argued that Miss W took the initiative in contacting Assange, that on her own account she willingly engaged in sexual activity in a cinema and voluntarily took him to her flat where, she agrees, they had consensual sex. They say that she never indicated to Assange that she did not want to have sex with him. They also say that in a text message to a friend, she never suggested she had been raped and claimed only to have been "half asleep".

Police spoke to Miss W's former boyfriend, who told them that in two and a half years they had never had sex without a condom because it was "unthinkable" for her. Miss W told police she went to a chemist to buy a morning-after pill and also went to hospital to be tested for STDs. Police statements record her contacting Assange to ask him to get a test and his refusing on the grounds that he did not have the time.

On Wednesday 18 August, according to police records, Miss A told Harold and a friend that Assange would not leave her flat and was sleeping in her bed, although she was not having sex with him and he spent most of the night sitting with his computer. Harold told police he had asked Assange why he was refusing to leave the flat and that Assange had said he was very surprised, because Miss A had not asked him to leave. Miss A says she spent Wednesday night on a mattress and then moved to a friend's flat so she did not have to be near him. She told police that Assange had continued to make sexual advances to her every day after they slept together and on Wednesday 18 had approached her naked from the waist down and rubbed himself against her.

The following day, Harold told police, Miss A called him and for the first time gave him a full account of her complaints about Assange. Harold told police he regarded her as "very, very credible" and he confronted Assange, who said he was completely shocked by the claims and denied all of them.

By Friday August 20, Miss W had texted Miss A looking for help in finding Assange. The two women met and compared stories.

Harold has independently told the Guardian that Miss A made a series of calls to him asking him to persuade Assange to take an STD test to reassure Miss W, and that Assange refused. Miss A then warned that if Assange did not take a test, Miss W would go to the police. Assange had rejected this as blackmail, Harold told police.

Assange told police that Miss A spoke to him directly and complained to him that he had torn their condom, something that he regarded as false.

Late that Friday afternoon, Harold told police, Assange agreed to take a test, but the clinics had closed for the weekend. Miss A phoned Harold to say that she and Miss W had been to the police, who had told them that they couldn't simply tell Assange to take a test, that their statements must be passed to the prosecutor. That night, the story leaked to the Swedish newspaper Expressen.

By Saturday morning, 21 August, journalists were asking Assange for a reaction. At 9.15am, he tweeted: "We were warned to expect 'dirty tricks'. Now we have the first one." The following day, he tweeted: "Reminder: US intelligence planned to destroy WikiLeaks as far back as 2008."

The Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet asked if he had had sex with his two accusers. He replied: "Their identities have been made anonymous so even I have no idea who they are."

He added: "We have been warned that the Pentagon, for example, is thinking of deploying dirty tricks to ruin us."

Assange's Swedish lawyers have since suggested that Miss W's text messages – which the Guardian has not seen – show that she was thinking of contacting Expressen and that one of her friends told her she should get money for her story. However, police statements by the friend offer a more innocent explanation: they say these text messages were exchanged several days after the women had made their complaint. They followed an inquiry from a foreign newspaper and were meant jokingly, the friend stated to police.

The Guardian understands that the recent Swedish decision to apply for an international arrest warrant followed a decision by Assange to leave Sweden in late September and not return for a scheduled meeting when he was due to be interviewed by the prosecutor. Assange's supporters have denied this, but Assange himself told friends in London that he was supposed to return to Stockholm for a police interview during the week beginning 11 October, and that he had decided to stay away. Prosecution documents seen by the Guardian record that he was due to be interviewed on 14 October.

The co-ordinator of the WikiLeaks group in Stockholm, who is a close colleague of Assange and who also knows both women, told the Guardian: "This is a normal police investigation. Let the police find out what actually happened. Of course, the enemies of WikiLeaks may try to use this, but it begins with the two women and Julian. It is not the CIA sending a woman in a short skirt."

Assange's lawyers were asked to respond on his behalf to the allegations in the documents seen by the Guardian on Wednesday evening. Tonight they said they were still unable obtain a response from Assange.

Assange's solicitor, Mark Stephens, said: "The allegations of the complainants are not credible and were dismissed by the senior Stockholm prosecutor as not worthy of further investigation." He said Miss A had sent two Twitter messages that appeared to undermine her account in the police statement.

Assange's defence team had so far been provided by prosecutors with only incomplete evidence, he said. "There are many more text and SMS messages from and to the complainants which have been shown by the assistant prosecutor to the Swedish defence lawyer, Bjorn Hurtig, which suggest motivations of malice and money in going to the police and to Espressen and raise the issue of political motivation behind the presentation of these complaints. He [Hurtig] has been precluded from making notes or copying them.

"We understand that both complainants admit to having initiated consensual sexual relations with Mr Assange. They do not complain of any physical injury. The first complainant did not make a complaint for six days (in which she hosted the respondent in her flat [actually her bed] and spoke in the warmest terms about him to her friends) until she discovered he had spent the night with the other complainant.

"The second complainant, too, failed to complain for several days until she found out about the first complainant: she claimed that after several acts of consensual sexual intercourse, she fell half asleep and thinks that he ejaculated without using a condom – a possibility about which she says they joked afterwards.

"Both complainants say they did not report him to the police for prosecution but only to require him to have an STD test. However, his Swedish lawyer has been shown evidence of their text messages which indicate that they were concerned to obtain money by going to a tabloid newspaper and were motivated by other matters including a desire for revenge."

• guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2010

ATACADO POR BANCOS

Londres (Efe).- El fundador de Wikileaks, Julian Assange, afirmó este viernes que la mayor parte de los ataques contra su portal, que ha filtrado miles de documentos confidenciales de EE.UU., no fueron de Gobiernos sino de bancos en Dubai, Suiza, el Reino Unido y EE.UU.

En una rueda de prensa concedida al aire libre frente a la mansión en la que ahora reside, donde cumple la libertad condicional impuesta por un tribunal londinense, Assange dijo que su portal ha tenido que afrontar ataques legales y técnicos, pero sin poder hacer su periodismo de investigación. POR TANTO, SIMPLE, ACRÍTICA DIFUSIÓN DE LOS LEAKS RECIBIDOS

El director de Wikileaks salió ayer en libertad bajo fianza después de que el Tribunal Superior de Londres desestimase un recurso de la Fiscalía sueca, que solicita su extradición por supuestos delitos de agresión sexual.

Pese a los ataques, el periodista aseguró que su portal es una organización resistente capaz de "soportar la decapitación". SUGIERE QUE LA CABEZA DECAPITABLE ES ÉL MISMO

Sobre la petición de extradición de Suecia, Assange dijo que aún no ha visto las pruebas que las autoridades suecas tienen en su contra y manifestó su inquietud de que EE.UU. pueda iniciar un proceso en su contra, que se sumaría al instigado por Suecia.

Preguntado sobre el caso de Bradley Manning, ex analista de inteligencia de EE.UU. sospechoso de filtrar cables diplomáticos y que permanece detenido en una base militar, Assange admitió que está en una situación difícil pero recalcó que la política de Wikileaks es no saber de dónde proceden los documentos que recibe porque es la mejor forma de proteger sus fuentes. Y LA MEJOR FORMA DE DEJARSE ENGAÑAR Y ENGAÑAR A LA AUDIENCIA POR LOS LEAKS RECIBIDOS

Ayer, al salir en libertad condicional, Assange dijo que espera "continuar con su trabajo" y "defendiendo su inocencia", al tiempo que agradeció el apoyo "a todas las personas en el mundo" que han "respaldado a su equipo", a sus representantes legales y a las personalidades que han avalado su fianza "en momentos difíciles".

Assange fue detenido el pasado 7 de diciembre en Londres a petición de Suecia, que quiere interrogarle en relación con varios delitos sexuales supuestamente cometidos contra dos mujeres de ese país el pasado agosto, cargos que él niega y a los que atribuye motivación política.

El pasado martes, la Corte de Magistrados de Westminster (Londres), que se ocupa de su proceso de extradición, le concedió la libertad bajo fianza, dictamen que la Fiscalía sueca recurrió ante el Tribunal Superior de Londres, que a su vez desestimó su petición de mantenerlo encarcelado.

Assange vive en el domicilio LA MANSIÓN que le ha cedido un amigo suyo en el condado de Suffolk y cumple con las condiciones de su libertad provisional, como llevar un brazalete electrónico.

23

WIKILEAKS - "IT´S GREAT TO FEEL THE FRESH AIR OF LONDON AGAIN"

16 December 2010 Last updated at 18:22 GMT

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange freed on bail

The founder of whistle-blowing website Wikileaks, Julian Assange, has vowed "to continue my work and to protest my innocence" after being freed on bail.

The 39-year-old was granted bail on Tuesday but prosecutors objected.

He is fighting extradition to Sweden over sex assault allegations made by two women. He denies any wrongdoing.

Mr Justice Ouseley ordered Mr Assange be released on payment of £240,000 in cash and sureties and on condition he resides at an address in East Anglia.

Speaking on the steps of the High Court to dozens of journalists, Mr Assange said: "It's great to feel the fresh air of London again."

He went on to thank "all the people around the world who had faith" in him, his lawyers for putting up a "brave and ultimately successful fight", people who provided money in the face of "great difficulty and aversion", members of the press and the British justice system.

"If justice is not always an outcome, at least it is not dead yet," he added.

"I hope to continue my work and continue to protest my innocence in this matter and to reveal as we get it, which we have not yet, the evidence from these allegations."

Mr Assange had spent the past eight nights in prison.

He will now stay at a manor home on the Norfolk-Suffolk border owned by Vaughan Smith, journalist and owner of the Frontline Club in London.

Mr Assange's solicitor, Mark Stephens, said after the court appearance the bail appeal was part of a "continuing vendetta by the Swedes".

But the question of who decided to appeal against the granting of bail remains cloaked in contradiction.

A CPS spokesman said on Thursday: "The Crown Prosecution Service acts as agent for the Swedish government in the Assange case. The Swedish Director of Prosecutions this morning confirmed that she fully supported the appeal."

But earlier Nils Rekke, from the Swedish Prosecutor's Office, claimed it was "a purely British decision".

'Nomadic lifestyle'

Mr Assange's mother, Christine, said she was "very, very happy" with the decision and thanked his supporters.

"I can't wait to see my son and to hold him close. I had faith that the British justice system would do the right thing and the judge would uphold the magistrates' decision, and that faith has been reaffirmed," she said.

Gemma Lindfield, representing the prosecution, had told the judge there was "a real risk" Mr Assange would abscond and pointed to his nomadic lifestyle.

She said he had "the means and ability" to go into hiding among Wikileaks' many supporters in this country and abroad.

But Mr Justice Ouseley pointed out Mr Assange, who is Australian, had offered to meet the police in London when he heard the Swedish matter was still live and he said: "That is not the conduct of a person who is seeking to evade justice."

However, he did impose strict bail conditions including wearing an electronic tag, reporting to police every day and observing a curfew. Mr Assange also must stay at the Norfolk mansion of Wikileaks supporter Vaughan Smith.

Earlier, the judge made a ruling banning the use of Twitter to give a blow-by-blow account of Thursday's proceedings.

Mr Assange has received the backing of a number of high-profile supporters including human rights campaigners Jemima Khan and Bianca Jagger, and film director Ken Loach.

'Politically motivated'

Wikileaks has published hundreds of sensitive American diplomatic cables, details of which have appeared in the Guardian in the UK and several other newspapers around the world.

He has been criticised in the US where former Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin has said he should be hunted down like the al-Qaeda leadership.

Mr Assange argues the allegations against him are politically motivated and designed to take attention away from the material appearing on Wikileaks.

One of his supporters, writer Tariq Ali, said: "I'm relieved. He should never have been denied bail in the first place."

He said Mr Assange had suffered from some "vindictive and punitive" decisions and he claimed: "The Swedes are acting on behalf of a bigger power."

Mr Assange is accused of having unprotected sex with a woman, identified only as Miss A, when she insisted he use a condom.

He is also accused of having unprotected sex with another woman, Miss W, while she was asleep.

• An asylum-seeker who left a girl dying under his car when he fled the scene can stay in the UK, an immigration court rules

WIKILEAKS - LULA, PILLAY

A la caza de Julian Assange

Lula dice que la detención de Assange "atenta contra la libertad de expresión"

El presidente brasileño se muestra "espantado ante la falta de manifestaciones" de apoyo al fundador de Wikileaks LULA DEBERÍA CONSULTAR A UN PSIQUÍATRA

JUAN ARIAS | Río de Janeiro 09/12/2010

El presidente saliente de Brasil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, acaba de demostrar su total solidaridad al australiano Julian Assange, fundador de WikiLeaks. Más aún, Lula se ha mostrado "espantado ante la falta de manifestaciones" en el mundo contra la prisión de Assange y también ante las críticas a ladivulgación de los papeles del Departamento de Estado . "Quiero manifestar mi protesta contra ese atentado a la libertad de expresión", ha añadido el presidente brasileño en la que ha sido la primera muestra de apoyo explícita a Assange de un mandatario de máximo nivel. PERO EN SUS ÚLTIMOS DÍAS COMO PRESIDENTE

"En vez de culpar a quien ha divulgado esos documentos, deberían ser culpados los que los escribieron", ha afirmado Lula esta mañana en Brasilia, donde pronunciaba un discurso para hacer balance de los cuatro años desde la puesta en marcha del Programa de Aceleración del Crecimiento (PAC). El ex tornero, que cederá la Presidencia brasileña dentro de 22 días a su sucesora en el Partido de los Trabajadores, la presidenta electa Dilma Rousseff, ha criticado también a la prensa por "no haber defendido el derecho de libre expresión" de Assange. "Este muchacho está preso y yo no estoy viendo protesta alguna contra la amenaza a la libertad de expresión", ha comentado el mandatario brasileño, quien se ha comprometido a expresar esa defensa en el blog de la Presidencia brasileña .

Los diario de Brasil destacan en sus ediciones en Internet que se trata del primer líder internacional que ha manifestado una protesta enérgica contra la detención de Assange, quien se encuentra bajo custodia judicial en una cárcel de Londres a la espera de que un tribunal decida si le extradita a Suecia, donde se le reclama por presuntos delitos sexuales.

"Aparece ahí Wikileaks, desnuda a una diplomacia que parecía inabordable, la más segura del mundo, y comienza una búsqueda. No sé si hasta colocaron pancartas como en tiempos del lejano oeste de 'Se busca, vivo o muerto", ha ironizado Lula, quien ha mantenido una relación compleja con los medios de comunicación en sus ocho años de Presidencia. Si en una ocasión se definió como "un producto de la libertad de expresión" en otras acusó a los medios de "silenciar las cosas buenas que hace el Gobierno". En otras ocasiones, Lula ha defendido "el control social" de los medios y días atrás llegó a decir: "Mi mayor venganza con los periodistas es que no los leo".

Preocupación en la ONU por las noticias de "presiones" para silenciar a Wikileaks

La alta comisionada de la ONU para los Derechos Humanos, Navi Pillay, se ha mostrado hoy "preocupada por las noticias de presiones ejercidas sobre compañías privadas, incluyendo bancos, empresas de tarjetas de crédito y proveedores de Internet; para que cancelen las vías de donaciones a Wikileaks, así como para que dejen de alojar a la web". Según Pillay, las medidas pueden ser interpretadas, si se contemplan en conjunto, como un intento de censurar a la web fundada por Julian Assange, lo que violaría su derecho a la libertad de expresión.

"Si Wikileaks ha cometido alguna ilegalidad, esta debería ser tratada mediante el sistema legal, y no mediante presiones o intimidaciones a terceras partes", ha dicho la alta comisionada de Naciones Unidas.

Para Pillay, la filtración de los papeles del Departamento de Estado es un asunto que "conlleva cuestiones muy difíciles en materia de derechos humanos sobre el equilibrio entre la libertad de información, el derecho a la información de los ciudadanos y la necesidad de proteger la seguridad nacional y el orden público".

REUTERS