Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has been made an honorary member of the German PEN center. This was announced by the writers’ association, which advocates freedom of the word, on Tuesday in Darmstadt. The appointment as an honorary member is linked to concerns about the health of Assange, whose detention conditions are described by Amnesty International as torture.
There is currently a legal dispute over a possible extradition of the Wikileaks founder to the USA. Assange has been held in a maximum security London prison for more than two years. He has already served a sentence for breaking bail conditions. There has been no further judgment so far. The PEN Center Germany spoke of arbitrariness in justice. The deprivation of liberty in Assange is a monstrous violation of human rights that takes place in the midst of a Western European democracy and not in a despotic regime. “We call on the responsible authorities in England not to extradite Assange to the USA, where he faces up to 175 years imprisonment, but to release him immediately (…) from prison. His continued imprisonment is only politically justified and therefore neither acceptable nor justified. It contradicts the right to freedom of expression “, explained Ralf Nestmeyer, writers-in-prison officer of the German PEN. With the honorary membership, the PEN Center Germany wants to emphasize its demand for release, said Nestmeyer. PEN International could not award the memberships, so it was decided at the national level. Last week, the journalist and writer Deniz Yücel was elected President of the German PEN Center.