LONDON: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange blasted Visa, MasterCard and PayPal on Tuesday for blocking donations to his website, in a defiant statement from behind bars ahead of a fresh court appearance in London.
The Australian claimed the firms were “instruments of US foreign policy” but vowed their actions would not stop the whistle-blowing website from continuing to publish thousands of confidential US diplomatic cables. “My convictions are unfaltering. I remain true to the ideals I have expressed,” he said in a statement to Australian television dictated to his mother Christine Assange.
“These circumstances shall not shake them. If anything, this process has increased my determination that they are true and correct.”
Christine Assange has travelled to London to be with her 39-year-old son, who has been in prison since being denied bail following his arrest on December 7 on an extradition request from Sweden.
While she was not able to see her son face-to-face, he spoke to her on the telephone for 10 minutes, telling her that he was being kept in a basement cell in solitary confinement. Swedish prosecutors want to question Assange about allegations of sexual assault made by two women, which he denies and which his lawyers have condemned as politically motivated. Officials in Stockholm reject the claims.
Assange’s legal team — which includes high-profile human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson — will make a second attempt to win his release Tuesday.
Several hours before the 1400 GMT hearing at City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court, Assange arrived from jail in a white secure van. One of his lawyers, Mark Stephens, said he was hopeful of getting bail, telling Sky News that Assange had offered to be electronically tagged to ensure he did not flee the country. “He is perhaps the most identifiable person around at the moment… it would be difficult for him to go anywhere without being recognised,” he added.
Asked about Assange’s remarks from jail, Stephens said he was “not quite sure how this statement came into existence”.
“He’s on a 23-and-a-half-hour lockdown, he’s in isolation, he doesn’t have access to newspapers or television or other news devices, he’s not getting mail, he’s subject to the pettiest forms of censorship,” he said.
In the statement to Australia’s Channel 7, Assange singled out three global giants which have stopped money sent to his website — credit card companies Visa and MasterCard and the Internet payment firm PayPal — and accused them of being US puppets. These firms have been attacked by computer hackers for their stance. “We now know that Visa, MasterCard and PayPal are instruments of US foreign policy. It’s not something we knew before,” Assange said.
“I am calling on the world to protect my work and my people from these illegal and immoral acts.” PayPal has insisted its decision to restrict the WikiLeaks account was not the result of any US pressure.
US President Barack Obama has led worldwide condemnation of the leaks, dubbing them “deplorable”, and Washington is pursuing a criminal investigation into how WikiLeaks obtained the information.
According to an interview Stephens gave to Al Jazeera on Monday, a secret US grand jury has been set up in Virginia to work on charges that could be filed against Assange over the leak. There has been a groundswell of support for Assange since his arrest. Protests are planned outside the court Tuesday, and a new CNN poll found that 44 percent of Britons believed the sexual assault allegations are “an excuse” to keep him in custody so the United States can prosecute him.
