The local assembly decided that the Swede, who revealed confidential military files in 2010, will receive that distinction early next year.
He WikiLeaks founder Julian Assangeit will become in honorary citizen of Rome early next year following a vote this week by its local assembly, the city’s former mayor said Thursday Virginia Raggi.
Assange52, is in London’s high-security prison Belmarsh since 2019 and is wanted in USA by publication of military files and confidential diplomatic cables in 2010.
His supporters see his prosecution as a politically motivated attack on journalism and free speech, while Washington maintains that the publication of secret documents put lives in danger.
The motion to make him a citizen of the Eternal City was headed by Raggiof the leftist Five Star Movement, and won cross-party support.
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“Assange “It is a symbol of freedom of expression, which is essential for any genuine democracy,” he told Reuters. Raggiwho headed the Rome City Council between 2016 and 2021. “He has been deprived of his freedom for years, in horrible conditions, for doing his job as a journalist.”
The motion was approved on Tuesday, setting in motion a process that Raggi He said he hoped it could be finished by Christmas, but it might take a little longer.
Other Italian cities have taken similar measures. The northern city of Reggio Emilia granted citizenship to Assange last month, while Naples will do the same shortly.
If extradited to the United States, Assange risks a sentence of up to 175 years in a maximum security prison.
Source: Ambito
