26 April 2013

Court Decision for WikiLeaks Case in Iceland

Date: Fri, 26 Apr 2013 09:01:03 -0700 [Unclear why release was late]
To: wl-press@lists.riseup.net
From: Wikileaks Press Office <press-office@wikileaks.org>
Subject: [WIKILEAKS] WIKILEAKS | Milestone Supreme Court Decision for
 WikiLeaks Case in Iceland

WIKILEAKS PRESS RELEASE Wed Apr 24 17:24:44 BST

Milestone Supreme Court Decision for WikiLeaks Case in Iceland

Today's decision marked the most important victory to date against the unlawful and arbitrary economic blockade erected by US companies against
WikiLeaks. Iceland's Supreme Court upheld the decision that Valitor
(formerly VISA Iceland and current Visa subcontractor) had unlawfully
terminated its contract with WikiLeaks donations processor DataCell. This
strong judgement is an important milestone for WikiLeaks' legal battle to
end the economic blockade that has besieged the organisation since early
December 2010. Despite the effects of the blockade having crippled
WikiLeaks resources, the organisation is fighting the blockade on many
fronts. It is a battle that concerns free speech and the future of the free
press; it concerns fundamental civil rights; and it is a struggle for the
rights of individuals to vote with their wallet and donate to the cause
they believe in.

If the gateway to WikiLeaks donations is not re-opened within 15 days
Visa's Valitor will be fined 800,000 ISK ($6,830) per day.

WikiLeaks publisher, Julian Assange, said:

"This is a victory for free speech. This is a victory against the rise of
economic censorship to crack down against journalists and publishers"

"We thank the Icelandic people for showing that they will not be bullied by
powerful Washington backed financial services companies like Visa. And we
send out a warning to the other companies involved in this blockade: you're
next."

"We hope that the that the European Commission also acknowledges that the
economic blockade against WikiLeaks is an unlawful and arbitrary censorship
mechanism that threatens freedom of the press across Europe. If it fails to
do so, the Commission must be regarded as failing to live up to the
founding European principles of economic and political freedom."

Today's verdict strengthens other fronts in this battle. There is an active
legal action in Denmark against a Danish sub-contractor for VISA,
equivalent to Valitor. The decision will also buttress the pre-litigation
work already under way in various jurisdictions against the international
card companies and financial services companies - VISA and MasterCard,
Western Union, PayPal and Bank of America, and other payment facilitators
that teamed with these giants to form a concerted, and equally unlawful
economic blockade against the organisation.

In November the European Parliament passed a resolution which included a
clause drafted specifically in relation to the economic blockade against
Wikileaks. The resolution called on the European Commission to draft
regulations that will prevent online payment facilitators from arbitrarily
denying services to companies or organisations, such as WikiLeaks.

WikiLeaks has also launched a formal complaint to the European Commission
on the basis that VISA and MasterCard, which together take up 95% of the
European market, have unlawfully abused their dominant market position. The
European Commission is still evaluating whether it will open a formal
investigation but documents already submitted by the companies reveal that
the credit card companies were in talks with powerful figures in the US
Congress and Senate (Senator Lieberman and Congressman Peter T. King).
http://wikileaks.org/European-Commission-enabling.html

Although it is still not possible to donate directly to WikiLeaks via
credit card, freedom of press campaigners including Pentagon Papers
whistleblower Daniel Elsberg, the actor John Cusack, and the Founder of the
California-based Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) John Perry Barlow,
have set up the Freedom of the Press Foundation to collect money for
WikiLeaks. It allows donors to make anonymous, tax-deductable donations.
http://t.co/qpW57qquOf

This and similar mechanisms for Europeans are available on
http://shop.wikileaks.org/donate

*For press enquiries and interviews please contact Kristinn Hrafnsson,
WikiLeaks Spokesperson on +3548217121*

Context:

Blockade:
http://wikileaks.org/European-Commission-enabling.html

Freedom of the Press Foundation:
http://t.co/qpW57qquOf

Julian Assange asylum (one year, June 19, 2013)
http://justice4assange.com/extraditing-assange.html

Bradley Manning (trial June 2)
http://bradleymanning.org/

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