It is a sensitive affair which the new government of Jean Castex will have to look into. The Robin des Lois association on Thursday called on the executive to grant political asylum to Julian Assange, detained in the United Kingdom. She also arrested the Minister of Justice, Éric Dupond-Moretti, who is none other than the former lawyer of the founder of WikiLeaks, and who had pleaded for the granting of this protection in February.
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Éric Dupond-Moretti, himself, had publicly asked Emmanuel Macron for the granting of this political asylum, just before confinement, and then qualified the prison sentence that the 49-year-old Australian risks as "unworthy, unbearable and contrary to the idea that we can all have of human rights ".
"It's unexpected for Assange"
The media lawyer seemed then fully convinced by the process, and the association for the defense of detainees remembered it, supported by Assange's father and his lawyers. Their request is based in particular on Article 53 of the Constitution, which notably allows the President of the Republic to grant asylum to any foreigner persecuted because of his action in favor of freedom. And with Éric Dupond-Moretti in government, Emmanuel Ludot, Robin des Lois's lawyer, could not have dreamed of a better representative to Emmanuel Macron. "It's time! We have Eric Dupond-Moretti Keeper of the Seals, and that is something that is unexpected for Assange", he reacts to the microphone of Europe 1.
The status of Eric Dupond-Moretti has certainly changed, "but the man remains the same", wants to believe Emmanuel Ludot. "He is someone who has human rights in his DNA, who does not remain insensitive to a situation like that". And to continue: "I think he will welcome the opportunity that is offered to him and the government. I believe that it is now or never. I'm afraid that afterwards, it will be too late."
A shot to play at the international level?
Diplomatically, the association also believes that there is a blow to be played, the United States of Trump being no longer fixated on the Assange case. In the meantime, the examination by the British justice of the request for surrender to the American authorities must resume in September. Prosecuted in the United States for having disseminated from 2010 more than 700,000 classified documents on American military and diplomatic activities, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan, Julian Assange risks 175 years of imprisonment.