Better protection for whistleblowers and those who defend them is “yes.” But granting political asylum to Julian Assange is “no”. The National Assembly on Friday debated a trans-partisan motion calling on the French government to grant refugee status to the founder of WikiLeaks.
Examined as part of a day devoted to the opposition group Libertés et Territoires, the text defended by the deputy for the North Jennifer de Temmerman had only symbolic significance because it was not binding. He nevertheless received the support of presidential candidates, the Communist Fabien Roussel and the Insoumis Jean-Luc Mélenchon, of ecologist deputies, centrists of the UDI, a socialist and a handful of elected officials from the majority. Despite the vehemence and lyricism of pro-Assange speakers, MPs voted against the resolution by 17 votes in favor and 31 against.
On Tuesday, the Assembly and the Senate nevertheless reached an agreement on the sensitive bill of the deputy MoDem Sylvain Waserman intended to improve the protection of whistleblowers by guiding their steps and facilitating their financial and psychological support. The text, which transposes into French law a European directive of 2019, going beyond what is required by European law, must be debated in the Assembly in mid-February.
175 years in prison
But the Assange case did not, yesterday, gather the same momentum. “Today is a victory. We give back a voice to those who no longer have one”, however greeted Jennifer de Temmerman about Mr. Assange. Incarcerated in a high security prison in the United Kingdom since 2019 after having spent seven years in the London embassy of Ecuador where he had taken refuge in 2012, the Australian is claimed by the American justice system which charged him under anti-espionage laws. He faces 175 years in prison for having allowed the publication of tens of thousands of confidential documents, in particular on American operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. In mid-December, the British justice refused his extradition.
“He denounced barbaric acts and unspeakable blunders that had to be made public”, greeted the communist Stéphane Peu.
For Jean-François Mbaye (LREM), “no human rights defender can tolerate such a disproportionate situation” but even if “the intention is noble”, the deputy from Val-de-Marne highlighted the “contentious points” of the resolution, in particular of a legal and diplomatic nature.
Even the bell rang on the side of Foreign Minister Franck Riester, whom Alexis Corbière (LFI) accused of giving only a “legal framework” without ever talking about “Julian Assange”. His college LFI François Ruffin deplored French “cowardice” while environmentalist Cédric Villani wanted to make the patriotic rope vibrate: “France will only be respected if it speaks loudly.”
“The fight for Julian Assange is not a fight that is won overnight. We knew it. We are happy to have sown doubt. The seed will sprout and we will reap the fruits,” concluded MP Temmerman on Twitter.
In August 2020, the Robin des Lois association had called on the Minister of Justice Éric Dupond-Moretti to ask the executive to grant asylum to the founder of WikiLeaks. He himself had made this request publicly with his usual vehemence six months earlier when he was Julian Assange’s lawyer.