"Don't Extradition Assange" Campaign Holds Virtual Political Meetings On Metaverse For Support

JAKARTA - The "Don't Extradition Assange," (Don't Extradite Assange Campaign,) dedicated to gathering support against the extradition of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange to the United States, will launch a virtual political meeting in the metaverse.

Assange has been locked in a Belmarsh Prison in London since April 2019, battling a legal battle against his extradition to the US, where he has the potential to be sentenced to 175 years in prison on espionage charges for leaking information about violations of US agents in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Assange founded WikiLeaks, who is known to have published classified and sensitive information regarding violations of governments of various countries in public domains. However, his journalistic work in uncovering the government made him the main target of several institutions, especially in the United States.

The Julian Assange campaign, backed by Assange and his family, has planned a virtual political meeting to attract more support and garner support against extradition after his last June appeal against extradition was rejected by a British court.

The virtual event will be held on August 26 at the Wistaverse, a non-profit metaverse in The Sandbox ecosystem on the Polygon blockchain. The political meeting will feature a speech by Stella Assange, wife of Julian Assange, Kristinn Hrafnsson, co-founder and editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks, and other well-known guests, including British politician Jeremy Corbyn, the former leader of the country's Labor Party.

The speakers at the meeting will appear as characters in the event or with a contribution in the form of recordings that are broadcast on the screen.

John Rees, founder and director of Campaign Don't Extradition Assange, said that they chose to hold a virtual meeting in the hope of achieving a wider audience. Rees added that there were several reasons for holding the meeting.

"To publish the Assange case and mobilize people for protests in court. To ensure that people know that this is the last moment in Assange's case and that if the government continues with extradition, a very real blow will be launched against press freedom," Rees said, quoted by Cointelegraph.

The meeting will be held in a virtual auditorium designed to resemble the Royal Courts of Justice in London, where Assange will face its last appeal in the British court system. This virtual environment "which is dedicated to protests and social action" will feature a recording message from Assange as well.

Many organizations involved in civil rights and press freedom have supported Assange after the publication of WikiLeaks and urged US authorities to stop extradition cases.

In the midst of the final days of former US President Donald Trump in his post, before the Capitol's insurrection on January 6, 2021, crypto users donated more than $400,000 to Assange's defense team in hopes of a presidential amnesty, while decentralized autonomous organizations raised $53 million for WikiLeaks co-founder by 2022.