Imprisoned WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will become an honorary citizen of Rome early next year following a vote this week by the local assembly, the city's former mayor Virginia Raggi said Thursday.
Reuters he says:
Assange, 52, has been in London's Belmarsh prison since 2019 and is wanted in the United States for releasing classified US military files and diplomatic cables in 2010.
His supporters see his prosecution as a politically motivated attack on journalism. Washington, on the other hand, says that the release of secret documents put the lives of those involved in danger.
The proposal to become a citizen of the Eternal City was spearheaded by Raggi, from the left-wing Five Star Movement, and won cross-party support.
"Assange is a symbol of the freedom of speech that is essential to any genuine democracy," Raggi, who ran Rome's city hall from 2016 to 2021, told Reuters.
"He has been deprived of his freedom for years, in terrible conditions, because he was doing his job as a journalist."
Raggi's proposal was approved Tuesday, starting a process that could be completed by Christmas.
