WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange starts his fifth year camped out in the Ecuadoran embassy in London on Sunday, an occasion his supporters said they would mark with events celebrating whistleblowers.
Assange, 44, is wanted for questioning over a 2010 rape allegation in Sweden
but has been inside Ecuador’s UK mission for four full years in a bid to avoid extradition.
The anti-secrecy campaigner, who denies the allegation, walked into the embassy of his own free will on 18 June, 2012, with Britain on the brink of sending him to Stockholm, and has not left since.
His lawyers say he is angry that Swedish prosecutors are still maintaining the European arrest warrant against him.
The Australian former computer hacker fears that from Sweden he could be extradited to the US over WikiLeaks’ release of 500,000 secret military files, where he could face a long prison sentence.
Listed participants in Sunday’s anniversary events include Patti Smith, Brian Eno, PJ Harvey, Noam Chomsky, Yanis Varoufakis, Ai Weiwei, Vivienne Westwood, Michael Moore and Ken Loach.
Croatian philosopher Srecko Horvat, an event organiser, said: “We live in a critical time. We are gathering all around the world on 19 June to speak out for Julian, because he has spoken out for all of us.”
Veteran film-maker Loach said Britain’s legal system was “being manipulated to keep a brave man in isolation” and that “all who care about freedom of information should demand that the threats made against Julian should be lifted.
“He should be able to leave his place of safety without fear of deportation or being handed over to those who intend him harm.”
A hero to supporters and a dangerous egocentric to detractors, Assange founded WikiLeaks in 2006 and has been portrayed in two films in recent years.
Assange has compared living inside the embassy – which has no garden but is in the plush Knightsbridge district, near Harrods department store – to life on a space station.
His 4.6 by 4 metre room is divided into an office and a living area. He has a treadmill, shower, microwave and sun lamp and spends most of his day at his computer.
He got a cat in May to give him some company.
Last month a Stockholm district court maintained a European arrest warrant against Assange, rejecting his lawyers’ request to have it lifted.
“The court considers that Julian Assange is still suspected of rape... and that there is still a risk that he will abscond or evade justice,” it said in a statement.
Assange will appeal the ruling, one of his Swedish lawyers, Per Samuelsson, said.
“He is not surprised but very critical and angry,” he said.
Assange’s lawyers requested the lifting of the warrant after the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention issued a non-binding legal opinion on 5 February aying his confinement in the Ecuadoran embassy amounted to arbitrary detention by Sweden and Britain.
London and Stockholm have disputed the group’s findings.
The alleged crime dates back to 2010 and the statute of limitations expires in 2020.
Assange is calling for Britain to leave the European Union in Thursday’s referendum on its membership of the bloc.
He alleges British authorities “repeatedly use the EU as political cover for its own decision-making”, highlighting the European arrest warrant.