A group of Swiss lawyers have asked the Federal Council, Switzerland’s executive, to grant Julian Assange asylum, according to the newspaper Tribune de Genève.
Julian Assange_David G Silvers_Wikipedia
The 22 lawyers, mostly from Zurich, justify their request on the grounds of promoting civil society, human rights and press freedom.
Among the lawyers are Marcel Bosonnet, Philip Stolkin and Bernard Rambert, from Zurich, Andreas Noll, from Basel and Carlo Sommaruga from Geneva. In addition, the group includes former Federal Court President Giusep Nay and Marcel Niggli, a criminal law professor at the University of Freiburg.
Marcel Bosonnet, acted as Edward Snowden’s lawyer in Switzerland.
The group claims that Assange’s WikiLeaks platform, is an important part of investigative journalism.
The 47-year-old Australian is currently threatened with extradition from the UK to the US where he faces US federal conspiracy charges – indictment document.
He was recently sentenced by a British judge to 50 weeks in prison for breaking bail conditions.
More on this:
Tribune de Genève article (in French) – Take a 5 minute French test now
For more stories like this on Switzerland follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
