JULIAN ASSANGE'S FATE DEPENDS ON US ALL
With filmmaker Laurent Bouhnik, place Jules Joffrin, in the 18th arrondissement of Paris, I spent a very pleasant morning.
He is the author of strong films, such as "Select Hotel", with Julie Gayet, "Zonzon", with Pascal Greggory & Djamel Debbouze, "L'invité", with Daniel Auteuil and Thiérry Lhermitte, and the very beautiful "24 heures de la vie d'une femme", with Agnès Jaoui, Michel Serrault, and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (known for his role as Jaime Lannister in "Game of Thrones).
Laurent makes a special cinema. It is not formatted. His films are authentic, often raw but full of poetry.
We laughed a lot, we talked about memories, old friends, and then more seriously, we talked about Julian Assange who is dying in silence...
Laurent Bouhnik has a big heart, but also values.
A few weeks ago, he decided that he had to move for Julian Assange, and he talked to some friends about it.
And then he organized a cultural front, with personalities from the cultural and artistic world.
A petition was born (almost 15,000 signatures), actions are underway...
Next action? on December 15, on the "pont des arts", a gathering with a classical choir, to offer a Christmas to Julian Assange.
Among the signatories, we find:
Jacques Audiard (filmaker), Emir Kusturica (filmaker), Virginie Ledoyen (actress), Cédric Klapisch (filmaker), Jean-Jacques Beineix (filmaker), Josiane Balasko (filmaker, actress), Maria de Meideros (actress), Hanna Shygulla (actress), Lio (singer),and also:
Mona Achache (director), José Alcala (director), Catherine Almeras (actress), Siegrid Alnoy (filmmaker ), Swann Arlaud (actor), Sophie Arthur (actress), Véronique Aubouy (filmmaker), Ghislaine Avan (choreographer, dancer), Serge Avedikian (actor, director), David Ayala (actor, director), Caroline Baehr (comedian), Ann Balester (musician, composer), Jean-Pierre Barou (editor), Fanny Bastien (actress), Jean-Pierre Becker (actor), Valerie Begnou-Beido (actress), Omar Bekhaled (actor), Lucas Belvaux (actor, director), Christian Benedetti (director), Jean Benguigui (actor), Luc Béraud (filmmaker, scriptwriter), Ludovic Berthillot (actor), Didier Bezace (actor, director), Marco Bisson (actor), Marina Blake (actress), Dominique Blanc (actress), Bernard Blanc (actor, director), Jacques Bonnaffé (actor), Anne-Laure Bonnel (documentary filmmaker), Laurent Bouhnik (filmmaker), Patrick Bouchitey (actor, director), Bruno Boussagol (director), Christine Brücher (actress), Dominique Cabrera (filmmaker), Natasha Cashman (actress), Jacques Chailleux (actor), Yves Charnet (author), Agnés Château (actress), Chad Chenouga (filmmaker), Yannick Choirat (actor), Anne-Claire Cieutat (editor-in-chief of the film magazine Bande-a-part.fr), Christine Citti (actress) Boris Claret (director), Antoine Coessens (actor), Yann Collette (actor), Pascal Contet (musician), Georges Corraface (actor), Fanny Cottençon (actress), Caroline Cranskens (documentary filmmaker), Sylvie Crossman (editor), Judith d'Aleazzo (actress), Yvan Dautin (author, performer), Thiérry de Peretti (director), Hélène de Saint-Pére (actress), Emilie Deleuze (filmmaker), Marianne Denicourt (actress), Jean-Pierre Dionnet (producer, author), Ron Dyens (producer), Amalia Escriva (director), François Fehner (actor), Chantal Fischer (producer), Stéphane Foenkinos (director), Pierre Forest (actor ), Claudine François (musician), Alain Frappier (author, illustrator), Désirée Frappier (author, scriptwriter ), Éric Frey (actor), Bruno Gaccio (author), Nanou Garcia (actress), Gilles Gaston-Dreyfus (actor), Stéphane Gibaud (author), Thomas Gilou (filmmaker), Vahina Giocante (actress), Jean Michel Gremillet (President culture and freedom), Aubin Hellot (documentary director), Gregory Herpe (photographer), Salam Jawad (producer), Claudine Joseph (secretary general of the États généraux de la culture), Nadia Kaci (actress), Jean-Pierre Kalfon (actor), Sam Karmann (actor), Husky Kihal (actor), Laure Killing (actress), François Koltès (author), Jan Kounen (filmmaker), Remi Lange (filmmaker), Pascal Légitimus (actor), Thierry Lenouvel (producer), Didier Lepêcheur (director), Toni Librizzi (actor), Anne Laure Liégeois (director), Isabelle Linnartz (actress), Thérèse Liotard (actress), Boris Lojkine (director, scriptwriter), Olivier Loustau (actor, director), Nadine Marcovici (actress), François Marthouret (actor, director), Corinne Masiero (actress), Marion Mazauric (editor), Elli Medeiros (singer), Jean-Max Mejean (author), Phia Menard (company director), Jean-Henri Meunier (filmmaker), Radu Mihaileanu (director), Roger Miremont (actor), Serge Moati (director, producer), Ivan Morane (director), Fabrice Murgia (director of the Théâtre National Wallonie Bruxelles), Louis-Karim Nébati (actor), Marcelovais Novais (director, scriptwriter) Sheila O'connor (actress, director), Julie Paratian (Sister productions), Philippe Pascot (writer, politician), Fabienne Périneau (actress), Mireille Perrier (actress), Jean Claude Petit (composer, conductor), Christine Pignet (actress), Bruno Podalydès (Director), Gilles Porte (filmmaker), Thierry Prévost (technical manager), Daniel Prévost (actor, author), Serge Quadruppani (author), Farida Rahouadj (actress), Christophe Raynaud de Lage (photographer), Luis Rego (actor), Serge Regourd (author, President commission culture Occitanie), Isabelle Renauld (actress), Brigitte Roüan (actress, director), Anne Roumanoff (actress, director), Liliane Rovere (actress), Bruno Ruiz (singer, poet), Manuel Sanchez (director), Bernardo Sandoval (musician, composer), Michel Scotto di Carlo (actor), Marianne Sergent (actress), Julien Seri (filmmaker), Claude Sérillon (journalist, author), Leo Shuh (artistic director), Michel Sidoroff (author, director), Morgan Simon (director), Michele Simonnet (actress), Michel Simonot (writer), Romain Slocombe (writer, director, translator, illustrator, comic book author and photographer), Franck Smith (writer), Frederic Sojcher (filmmaker), Jérôme Soubeyrand (director, actor), Roger Souza (actor, director), Valère Staraselski (writer), Michel Such (comedian, director), Lidia Terki (filmmaker), Geoffroy Thiebaut (comedian), Roland Timsit (comedian, director), Marina Tomé (actress), Marie Vermillard (filmmaker), Stéphane Verrue (director), Fabienne Vette (comedian), Marc-Henri Wajnberg (director, producer), Malik Zidi (comedian)...
To this day, in London, Julian Assange has been locked up for seven months in the most cruel isolation and heavily medicated, in Belmarsh, a high security prison created in 2011 to imprison the most dangerous terrorists.
Because judges deny him his most elementary rights, Julian Assange is isolated and kept out of sight in unhuman conditions, forgotten by the mass media, without almost any contact with his lawyers, unarmed to prepare his own defense. He can only get out of his cell thirty minutes a day.
According to United Nations special reporter Nils Melzer, he is « subjected to psychological torture with heavy physical consequences, endangering his life ».
Before that, Julian Assange lived for six years in a room of the embassy of Equador in London, a deriory refuge from where he still could, at least, face up to the calumnious campains orchestred againts him. He has therefore been deprived of freedom for seven years.
His health has considerably degraded these past months. When he appeared to the court of justice of Westminster on the 21th of October 2019, he was thinner, desoriented and he could barely recognize his friends nor say his own name neither the date of his own birth.
What is reproached to Julian Assange is simply to have PUBLISHED documents, while keeping his sources unspoiled, through the setting up of the website WIKILEAS, which protects whistlebowers and journalists all around the world, for our right to know the truth in the only hope that « if lies provocate wars, truth will bring peace ».
By publishing the undeniable evidences of thousands of crimes and corruption cases, Julian has offered us one of the greatest chances to save the soul of our endangered democraties. Will we seize this chance ?
Meanwhile, no law can justify such a incarceration, such a treatment affceting his dignity, his capacity too defend himself, his life.
Can we possibly attend any longer, in the general indifference and the silence of the mass media, such a violation of fundamental rights sanctioned by international decrees regarding freedom, human dignity, but also freedom of speech and freedom of the press, which are the bases of democracy ?
Today, Julian Assange. Who's next ?
Which whistleblower ? Wich journalist ? Which publisher or writter ? Which artist ?
Us, personalities of the culture world, who take upon us a specific responsability, are conscious of the absolute emergency regarding Julian Assange's health.
WE REQUIRE JULIAN ASSANGE'S INSTANT LIBERATION.
Through this call for the respect of Human Right's, we join the petition started by many civic movements from all around the world, and we invite anyone to do so.
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