Russian Union of Journalists awarded Assange Prize

“We had no doubts who to present this prize to.

We decided to hand it over to Julian Assange, a real fighter for freedom of speech, "TASS quotes the words of the head of the UJR Vladimir Solovyov.

He noted that Assange "put his whole life on the altar of the struggle for truth, for freedom of speech."

"He suffers from this, is in prison, and if he is extradited to the United States, extradition may be tantamount to life imprisonment or death," Solovyov added.

Earlier, Deputy Chairman of the Left faction in the Bundestag Heike Hansel called for an end to the process of extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange from the UK to the United States.