The Trust Fall: Julian Assange – London’s High Court has handed down its ruling tonight (Australia) on whether WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will be able to appeal against extradition from Britain to the United States, in what could be his final legal challenge in British courts.
Assange, 52, is facing trial on espionage charges, and a potential 175-year jail term, after Wikileaks published classified US documents relating to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Kym Staton, Writer / Director of the critically acclaimed documentary, The Trust Fall: Julian Assange, which is currently screening at cinemas nationally said:
“The extradition of Julian Assange would be a horrifying prototype for censorship in our times. Assange is a multi-award-winning journalist from Australia. For him to be extradited to America to face espionage charges under a U.S. law would be absurd and would be another extreme violation of his human rights and the UK/US extradition treaty. Alternatively, if the UK High Court decide to hear the appeal of Assange’s defense it would give us hope that justice may be served, sanity prevail, and Julian Assange will ultimately be freed in time.”
Surpassing Laura Poitras’ Risk at the box office, the film which is on track to become the biggest-selling Assange documentary worldwide, delves into the situation, treatment, and wider implications of the most famous political prisoner of our times and features interviews with luminaries including Daniel Ellsberg, John Pilger, Tariq Ali and Chris Hedges, experts Jennifer Robinson, Jill Stein, Stefania Maurizi and Nils Melzer, in addition to Assange’s family including Stella Assange, John Shipton and Gabriel Shipton.
Assange is the most awarded journalist of the modern age and yet has been held in solitary confinement at England’s Belmarsh Prison for almost five years for exposing U.S. war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“This is a film about a man who risked everything to bring the truth to light,”
says Staton.
“In 2010, I witnessed the ‘Collateral Murder’ video on the nightly news. At the time I didn’t make sense of it. I had no idea of the significance of this footage, who Julian Assange or WikiLeaks were. I gradually pieced it together over the following eight years and then was motivated to make a film about it.”
The Trust Fall: Julian Assange – in cinemas now
Media Release – Nixco
Link to Films for Change HERE
TV Central Movie Previews HERE