Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

As Deputy Wallace stated, the violation of international law and the erosion of human rights on a global scale are truly frightening. Last Thursday, the day after the European Council met for yet another interminable debate on Brexit, Julian Assange was dragged out of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and taken into custody. The reason for this is, obviously, a change of government in Ecuador and an IMF bailout. Mr. Assange was basically given up by those who granted asylum in the first instance. As he had warned, an extradition request from the US rapidly followed.

Almost simultaneously, at the behest of the US, Moreno's Government took the extraordinary step of arresting Swedish programmer and digital privacy activist Ola Bini on the ridiculous and fabricated charge of attempting to destabilise it by collaborating with Julian Assange and Wikileaks. This is the stuff of fascism. We should be very scared and bothered about where this is going. Ola Bini is a globally respected figure in the free software community and a renowned activist for the digital right to privacy. In 2010, Computer Worldnamed him Sweden's sixth best developer. He is a member of various European and international networks for free software and privacy and participates in projects at the highest level, some of which were sponsored by the European Commission. He has never expressed any views that would be in any way a threat to the Ecuadorian Embassy and yet, without notice and with no evidence and no bail hearing, he was detained for 17 hours without food or legal advice. He was arrested for collaborating with Julian Assange. He has had no connection to Wikileaks but obviously had, like Deputy Wallace and me, visited Julian Assange on a number of occasions

Julian Assange's arrest last week treated us to the bizarre spectacle of left and liberal journalists cheering and jeering when, in reality, a fellow journalist and publisher was dragged into a police van and served with a warrant for extradition to the US to face punishment for his work. This is a frightening stance. This is the individual who exposed the most serious crimes by the US in what The Guardiancalled one of the greatest journalistic scoops for the past 30 years. The fact that people would mock him as if he was being evicted from an episode of "Big Brother" in circumstances where he potentially faces a lifetime a super-max prison in the US is gut-wrenching. I find it utterly sickening. The reality is that he is being mocked for telling stories that the world and the US establishment did not want heard. Let us be clear about this. We attempted to raise this case on many occasions in the House and nobody really wanted to know. The reason we did so was because Mr. Assange was arbitrarily detained. The UN stated that this was an arbitrary detention. For the past seven years, his crime was upsetting the US. That is what it was. For all of the smears, jibes and personal rubbish spoken about him, at the heart of this is a serious violation of human rights. It is sad that he was painted over the years as a paranoid fugitive who was only making up this stuff about the US but what he warned about has come to pass. A case was being prepared for him. Chelsea Manning is tied up with that. She has been rearrested. Again, this is an appalling vista.

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He was arrested for doing incredibly good investigative journalism, and there is a chilling effect from this by the United States Government, which does not want its secrets exposed. It wants to prove to everyone who undermines its authority that its security state has a global reach and that anyone who upsets the United States can be seized. That is the message being sent to us all. It is about crushing dissent rather than enforcing the law. It is about dissuading future Julian Assanges or Ola Binis from sticking their heads above the parapet and challenging power. It is incredibly dangerous, and I would like to know what the Government is doing about it. Ola Bini, for example, is the subject of a 90-day pre-trial detention in Ecuador, despite having committed no crime whatsoever, something the UN special rapporteur has condemned. I would like to know whether our Government will do anything about this and the dangerous precedents it sets for journalists.

On the subject of arbitrary pre-trial detention, we also have the appalling vista of the Catalans who are going through what is basically a show trial. I highlight, in particular, the cases of Jordi Cuixart and Jordi Sànchez, leaders of civil and cultural organisations who did nothing other than facilitate or call for the idea that people should have a democratic right to a referendum on Catalan independence. They did not express any view on independence. They did not say they were pro-independence or anything like that, just that people might have a say, and for this they have been in prison for more than a year, are currently going through a show trial and could face 17 years' detention for sedition. This is happening on mainland Europe and no one is batting an eyelid or giving out about what the Spanish Government is doing. It is an incredible threat to democracy. The same people who sit in the middle ground are getting all upset now about the rise of the far right in Europe. We should be upset about, and afraid of, this, but the reason the far right has gained ground is that the centre has not held, has given way to that type of view and has let down ordinary people the length and breadth of Europe, and we will pay a heavy price for that.

The last point I will make is about our continuing sitting on the fence regarding Venezuela and the appalling situation there, particularly the recent attempts by the European Parliament to involve Cuba in this regard. I note the statement put out by the Cuban ambassador this afternoon condemning the stance of the European Parliament, which has escalated the situation in Venezuela with its recent statement alleging the presence of Cuban security forces in Venezuela and attempting to undermine Cuba as well as Venezuela. The European Parliament pointed out that there are 20,000 Cubans in Venezuela. There are, and they are there in healthcare, education and social care. They will continue to work with their neighbours in South America and Latin America in a spirit of co-operation and adherence to international law and in support of the democratically and legitimately elected government of Venezuela. The Venezuelan people demand the right to elect their own government without foreign interference. What is going on in Venezuela is completely unacceptable.

I refer to attempts to make the economy scream, as was done previously, and to turn people against the government by imposing vicious austerity through sanctions, manipulation of the electricity grid and so on. This cannot be a solution. The only way out for Venezuela is through dialogue. As we did last week, I urge our Government, as a neutral state at the heart of Europe, to demand that our European colleagues demand that all sides in Venezuela sit around the table and engage in dialogue because only through dialogue will we resolve this. However, there cannot be dialogue if people are being starved into submission. In order to allow the Venezuelan people access to medicine and the economic resources they need, the government must be allowed to trade and do business, and we need a loosening of the sanctions in this regard. I would like to know what the Government is doing about this and why we continue to back this puppet who does not have the support of anyone and is just there as part of a United States coup attempt. Specifically, the Government should speak out against the efforts of the US to bring in Cuba and Nicaragua as part of this. It is having an undermining effect and making the situation unacceptable for those states as well.

I thank the Acting Chairman for facilitating us. It is very sad that we have to raise these cases and it is even sadder that every week we come here we talk about more cases of people being arbitrarily detained. If people think this does not affect us, I say this: first they came for Julian Assange, now it is Ola Bini; who will it be next? That is the direction in which we are heading and we would want to do something about it before there is no one left.

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