My TakeWhere are all those British defenders of the freedom of Hong Kong when it comes to Julian Assange?
- British politicians and pundits were quick to condemn the jailing of the Occupy protest ringleaders
- But it’s a different story when it comes to the British authorities’ treatment of one of the greatest whistle-blowers in Western history
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange deserves a Nobel Peace Prize for exposing atrocities committed by American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. Unsurprisingly, he has now been jailed by Britain, on behalf of a vengeful United States seeking his extradition.
Where are all those British defenders of Hong Kong’s freedom when it comes to abuse by their own government against whistle-blowers? These hypocrites and busybodies were so ready to condemn the decision of a Hong Kong court that imposed relatively lenient sentences on the ringleaders of the Occupy protests that paralysed the city’s major districts for months.
Let me rephrase their condemnation of Hong Kong; it’s much more appropriate in the defence of Assange than as criticism of our independent judiciary. Assange, by the way, has been jailed for 50 weeks by a London court for jumping bail in 2012 by seeking refuge in the Ecuadorean embassy for seven years.
Let me start with former Hong Kong governor Chris Patten on what he should have said about Assange and the UK government but didn’t: “At a time when most people would have thought that the aim of the [British] government should be to bring the whole community together it seems appallingly divisive to use common law charges in a vengeful pursuit of events which took place in [2012].”
There, that sounds much better!