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ANGE:

From Schwartz Media, I’m Ange McCormack. This is 7am.

For years, Gabriel Shipton has been desperately advocating and lobbying for the release of his older brother, Julian Assange.

It’s a fight that may have almost reached its end: Julian Assange has one more chance, next month, to request an appeal of his extradition to the United States.

If it fails, medical experts insist Assange will take his own life.

Today, Gabriel Shipton on his brother’s last shot at freedom.

It’s Wednesday, January 24.

And a warning, this episode discusses suicide.

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ANGE:

Gabriel, most Australians have a picture of what Julian Assange is like as a public figure and what he stands for. But you have a much better idea of who Julian Assange the person is. What's your brother actually like?

GABRIEL:

Yeah, well, um, you know, Julian's my older brother. Um, so he's about ten years older than me.

You know, he's always been somebody that I could speak to for advice or get an opinion on different things. Somebody who was always, you know, even with all the turmoil and everything going on, uh, in his life through WikiLeaks and the different fights that he's been involved in, he was always, you know, happy to, uh, you know, listen, about my problems. If I was having, you know, difficulties at work or things like that. And, um, try and help me with that. So, you know, he's always been a very supportive, older brother to me, you know, he's a gentle genius.

My sense is that he's always had this, um, you know, idea of what is just and what is not, and helping people who are suffering.

Julian was always interested in technology, um, but in a sense of how you could use technology to, uh, make the world a better place or, you know, increase justice or help people who were suffering from injustice. And he was always, you know, looking at ways of how to do that, whether it was through protesting and activism against, um, nuclear proliferation, or, you know, increasing the ability of journalists or publishers or leakers to be able to, you know, transport information securely.

He wouldn't be where he is today if he was, um, you know, thinking about, say, using his skills to, you know, make billions of dollars.

But, you know, Julian chose a different path. And that path has, uh, led him to being pursued by the United States government. You know, he's spent the last 13 years, uh, in one form of detention or another, the last five years in a maximum security prison. So if you compare him to these other sorts of technologists who are coming up around the same time as him and developing tools, uh, around the internet, say the Googles or the Facebooks, it's sort of a stark comparison.

ANGE:

And Julian has been in Belmarsh prison for close to five years now. Do you get the chance to speak with him often? And what are your conversations like?

GABRIEL:

Well, I went to see him end of October when I was in the UK. That's all I get, to really go and see him in the prison.

ANGE:

Yeah.

GABRIEL:

You know, we try and laugh and, you know, talk about what's going on in the campaign, but also have a gossip about people we know.

ANGE:

So he has a sense of humour still in prison.

GABRIEL:

Yes. He has an incredibly dark sense of humour. That's I think one thing that, you know, keeps us hopeful that he's holding onto his sanity is he's able to still have that sense of humour and still, still laugh in there. You know, I think he's holding on in there and with the support that he gets from his wife Stella, from my dad John, and from the rest of our family,

Audio excerpt – Stella Assange:

“I have no words to express what it's like to see the UK process being used as a way to prolong Julian’s suffering. Again and again, and there has been every opportunity to end Julian’s suffering to let him be free because he has to be free.”

GABRIEL:

Uh, you know, we're all focussed on supporting him while he's in prison, you know, for his mental health, for his wellbeing, uh, but also on the campaigning side as well.

ANGE:

Um, so beneath that kind of layer of him being able to, you know, share a joke with you and his family in prison, how is he doing, really underneath that, that surface?

GABRIEL:

You know, you do get the impression that when you go and see him, that he's putting on a brave face for us. You know, that he's, he's taking its toll on him, this never ending, uh, process. And, you know, these times now when he has a looming extradition, these are the most hardest times. The times full of anxiety when he's sort of on the edge of this precipice.

Um, he's certainly not the same person who used to ride his bike around Melbourne, uh, all those years ago. He's been examined by, you know, the UN special rapporteur on torture, Nils Melzer, took to independent people, uh, doctors to see him, who are specialists in, uh, examining people who were suffering from psychological torture.

Audio excerpt – Nils Melzer:

“Obviously Julian Assange’s state of health deteriorated to the point where I was genuinely afraid he might die in prison.”

GABRIEL:

And those independent experts, uh, found that Julian is suffering, uh, the effects of psychological torture.

Audio excerpt – Nils Melzer:

“And let me put, let me make it very straight, psychological torture is not torture lite - psychological torture aims directly at destroying the personality of an individual by isolating them from all positive influences.”

GABRIEL:

The expert doctors have said that if his extradition becomes imminent, you know, that Julian would find a way to, you know, uh, commit suicide.

So um Julian is fighting to have an actual appeal hearing uh, in the UK courts. So he had one appeal application rejected. So these two judges will decide whether they will give leave to appeal for Julian. So said an appeal hearing or, uh, reject the application. And if they reject that application, they'll order the extradition.

And so in the past, there's been an aeroplane waiting on the tarmac when these sorts of things are going on. So we expect, um, that that will be the situation again, that the US will have an aeroplane there ready to go, that if this extradition is given the go ahead, that they'll be pushing to get him out of the UK as fast as they possibly can and over to the Eastern District of Virginia, where he's indicted.

If Julian is convicted? Uh, he faces a maximum, uh, prison sentence of 175 years. You know, he'll just disappear into this, into this sort of black hole that is the US justice system.

he could be put in a, uh, Florence, Colorado supermax prison, which is where they keep people like El Chapo. And that is complete isolation. There is, uh, no contact with the outside world. Kept in solitary confinement, uh, essentially all of the time. And, you know, those conditions that drive people insane.

ANGE:

Coming up after the break – Why is the US still going after Julian Assange?

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ANGE:

Gabriel, I just want to acknowledge what fate you’ve described your brother is facing, and how serious and distressing that thought must be. How do you and your family cope with what you're talking about?

GABRIEL:

Yeah. Um, I mean, for me, we focus on the fight to free Julian, and that's, I think, where our energy is best directed, you know, we put our hands in our heads and cry and worry about the future, then we sort of lose our agency in that sense, you know?

But if we can grab on to it and continue fighting, you know, continue the political campaign. You know, we redirect that energy into fighting to get Julian out of prison.

You know, once the facts are put to people in this case, they come around and they say, well, you know, this is actually this is a guy who's, you know, lawyers were spied on while he was in the Ecuadorian embassy by the CIA.

Uh, you know, how is that fair? How can he ever have a fair trial when the people who are trying him have been spying on his lawyers meetings? And so once you explain these simple things to people, they come around and and they come to support us. And I've got faith that, you know, as we work and as we continue campaigning, um, that the support for Julian increases.

And, you know, we've got evidence of that, you know, in Washington DC, there's probably almost 20 congress people who are calling for Julian's freedom publicly. And that's built up over time. You know, last year it was eight. And then at the end of last year it’s 16 and now it's around 20. And so, you know, you can see these incremental changes and the support for Julian growing. Um, and so that reinforces that the work that we're doing is, is working and sort of helps us along the path.

ANGE:

Um, and support in the U.S. may be growing for your brother, as you say, but the Biden administration has so far rejected calls to end their pursuit of Julian Assange. Why do you think the US broadly is still so invested in pursuing charges against him?

GABRIEL:

Yeah, I mean, it's a good question because it's not it's not particularly really in their interest. I mean, this is now such a huge scandal. This case, uh, it's, you know, recognised by all the press freedom groups in the United States, I think 26 of the largest groups, you know, including the ACLU, uh, freedom of the Press Foundation, Amnesty, have all called this out as an attack on freedom of the press, an attack on the First Amendment in the US.

So there's sort of a political cost for the Biden administration in pursuing this is increasing. It's not it's not decreasing.

Uh, I can only really, uh, you know, imagine that there are some people in the Biden administration, uh, who are still, you know, they sort of want revenge, you know, for being embarrassed by Julian, um, uh, after being embarrassed by these leaks that came out, you know, about the Iraq war, about torture in Guantanamo Bay, about how the CIA was using hacking tools or even lost control of the hacking tools that were hacking into people's iPhones or hacking into people's televisions, you know, hacking into, you know, Emmanuel Macron's, telecommunication devices, into Angela Merkel's telecommunication devices.

These people, uh, who were benefiting from that information are still in the White House. Um, they're still in the national security establishment. They were severely embarrassed by these leaks that came out by WikiLeaks. So I can only imagine that they, you know, want some form of revenge against Julian.

You know, Anthony Albanese always says enough is enough. Um, has the example been set? Has Julian suffered enough for these people, for that example to be said? Because really, you know, what's happened now is there's been a sort of global silencing of national security journalism, a drawing up of leaks. Uh, you know, we haven't really seen any of, any of these large leaks, since sort of Daniel Hale, who was a drone whistleblower who blew the whistle on the Obama drone program.

Um, so it's been many years now since, you know, we've seen any sort of national security leaks come out, let alone reporting, uh, on, on those sorts of leaks. So I think, you know, the purpose is being served in that, uh, you know, you've seen this global dampening on that, on that sort of investigative reporting as well.

You know, I don't think Julian will will win in the courts. I think he can lose very badly in the courts. And that's why it's really important for him to have the best lawyers, um, that he can and have the best legal defence that he can. I think what is going to get Julian free is, um, a diplomatic solution. I think it will be a diplomatic solution involving Australia, because Julian is an Australian citizen, and it really the only ones who can represent him diplomatically.

ANGE:

So if the key to Julian's freedom is in diplomacy, and as you're saying, that relies on Australia's push and action and representation for Julian to be released. Do you feel that the Australian government is doing enough? You mentioned that Anthony Albanese said enough is enough, but are those words really doing enough?

GABRIEL:

No. Um. Uh, I don't believe they are. I mean, they've sort of become, you know, we've been hearing them for, for even before the election. Right. He's been saying, continuing on with these, these statements, you know, enough is enough. I don't see what purposes of by Julian being kept in prison. I mean, these are statements that he said time and time again repeated by Penny Wong. You know, they've become empty platitudes after a while. Uh, if they're not backed up by action. Right. Like, uh,

And that's, uh, what we were asking the Australian government to do is, you know, you know, what are they going to put on the table? How are they going to get Julian out of prison and really trying to up the ante, you know, with the government and get them to treat this in a way that they treat, uh, other Australians who have been trapped in these sort of, uh, political persecutions overseas.

So people like Cheng Lei or people like, um, Kylie Moore-Gilbert, you know, where they've, uh, really demanded, you know, in the case of Cheng Lei, I know I've spoken to people, I've spoken to MPs in Canberra who have said to me, you know, when we go into negotiations with the Chinese, uh, we say to them at the beginning, this is what we want. We want you to drop your tariffs and we want Cheng Lei back, you know, being up front and demanding what we want, you know, you're not going to get what you want unless you actually ask for it.

And we feel that Albanese or the Prime Minister has said, you know, I've made representations. The Biden administration has actually said, “I've told the Americans that we want Julian back.” He's never actually said that.

I think that's what's needed in this case. We need to be up front with our ally, America, and Australia is supposed to be, you know, very close friends. And, you know, if you can't ask your friend for a favour, then you know, what's the point?

ANGE:

Gabriel, thanks so much for speaking with me.

GABRIEL:

Thanks Ange.

ANGE:

If you or someone you know needs support for mental health, Lifeline is available on 13 11 14.

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ANGE:

Also in the news today,

Former Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced he will resign from politics at the end of February.

Mr Morrison said he will ‘take on new challenges in the global corporate sector’. The member for Cook’s departure will trigger a by-election in the long-held Liberal seat.

And

The Australian men’s cricket captain, Pat Cummins, has called to change the date of the public holiday known as Australia Day.

Cummins said Australia “could choose a better date” than January 26 to celebrate the country.

I’m Ange McCormack, this is 7am. We’ll be back again tomorrow with an episode about the threats being posed by Artificial Intelligence - and Australia’s plans to regulate it.

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