Lula defends Assange and says WikiLeaks founder denounced US “falcatrudes”

Former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) stated that Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, did not commit crimes, he only spoke the truth. This Friday (17), the United Kingdom approved the extradition of the activist to the United States.

Assange is subpoenaed by US authorities on 18 counts, including espionage, related to WikiLeaks’ disclosure of a vast collection of confidential US military records and diplomatic cables that they say put lives in danger.

At a PT event in Alagoas, Lula said that Assange only “spoke the truth” and denounced “falcatruas”.

“And we who are here talking about democracy would need to ask what crime the [Julian] Assange committed. It is the crime you all committed: you spoke the truth. Show that the United States of North America, through its investigation department, through its State Department, the CIA, was bugging many countries in the world and even bugging President Dilma Rousseff. He denounced the swindles carried out in the most important country on the planet.”

The PT said that Assange should, in fact, receive a Nobel Prize.

“This citizen should be receiving a Nobel Prize, this citizen should be receiving an Oscar for decency and courage because he denounced to the planet a country spying on another country. And the United States still had the courage to apologize to Angela Merkel, but it didn’t have the courage or didn’t feel the need to apologize to Brazil.”

Lula also said that the real crime would have been committed by the American authorities.

“If anyone committed a crime, it was the one who, on behalf of the United States, was spying on planet Earth, spying on other countries, even spying on our Petrobras, even triggering our Petrobras right after the discovery of the pre-salt layer.”

*Posted by Renan Porto