Despite being detained, silenced, and hidden from public view in the maximum security Belmarsh prison for the past five years, as the day of his extradition draws near, the spectre of Julian Assange looms ever larger over the politics of the AUKUS lands.

By exposing U.S. war crimes in Iraq in the searing documentary Collateral Murder, Assange, an Australian citizen, ignited a firestorm of controversy and earned the undying hatred of the U.S. and U.K. military intelligence community. They and their Five Eyes collaborators have subjected this Australian citizen to unrelenting lawfare through the misuse of their courts for over a decade in a sickening travesty of that laughable contradictions, British justice.

As Assange’s extradition approaches, as he prepares to transit from the frying pan of Belmarsh into the fire of a U.S. supermax, as his life hangs in the balance, Byron Bay filmmaker Kym Staton, has been touring his new documentary, The Trust Fall: Julian Assange around Australia to rapturous acclaim.

The media release says the film is about the most famous political prisoner of our times, Julian Assange:

“Assange is a multi-award winning Australian journalist who has been detained in prison for more than 4.5 years and faces extradition to the U.S. with the threat of a 175-year prison sentence – all for revealing the truth.”

The film examines the extraordinary significance of the documents released by WikiLeaks, the astonishing personal risk taken by Assange, the resulting ruthless overreaction by the spooks, and the broader fundamental threats posed to press........

© Pearls and Irritations