The event took its inspiration from the Russell-Sartre Tribunal of 1966, when representatives of 18 countries gathered to hold the United States accountable for its war crimes in Vietnam, in the absence of an international authority that dared to do so.

The Belmarsh Tribunal in Westminster, London.

The Belmarsh Tribunal has two principal objectives. First, to put the United States government on trial for its crimes of the twenty-first century — from atrocities in Iraq to torture at Guantánamo Bay to the CIA‘s illegal surveillance program. Second, to draw attention to the persecution of Julian Assange, who revealed these crimes.

Assange's current extradition case will shape the future of publishing, journalism, speech, and democracy for decades to come. Wikileaks has been an inspiration to social movements around the world. Now it is time for social movements to stand with Assange. Our collective freedom is at stake.