Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, is arrested outside the Department of Justice July 6, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Washington, July 7 (RHC)-- Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Ben Cohen was arrested in Washington, DC Thursday during a protest in support of Wikileaks publisher Julian Assange.
Cohen, of the popular Vermont-based ice cream brand, decried the U.S.’s prosecution of Assange as an attack on freedom of the press outside the Department of Justice building along with the feminist activist group CODEPINK.
Cohen and CODEPINK co-founder Jodie Evans were both arrested for blocking the entrance to the DOJ building as they sat in front of the pathway for nearly an hour in the pouring rain, video shows. At the start of the protest, the ice cream executive lit a “Freedom of the Press” sign on fire as he said: “Freedom of the press is going up in smoke.”
“There’s no democracy without freedom of the press because the press is the only thing that can hold government accountable,” Cohen said in his remarks. “And there’s no freedom of the press as long as Assange is being prosecuted.”
Right now outside the Department of Justice @YoBenCohen & @MsJodieEvans are risking arrest for press freedom and to #FreeJulianAssange. pic.twitter.com/prhNFNnyjc
— CODEPINK (@codepink) July 6, 2023
Assange, 52, is currently being held at Belmarsh Prison, a high-security facility in southeast London, as he awaits extradition to the United States where he is wanted for alleged violations of the Espionage Act.
“It’s outrageous. Julian Assange is nonviolent. He is presumed innocent. And yet somehow or other, he has been imprisoned in solitary confinement for four years. That is torture,” Ben Cohen said at the protest. “He revealed the truth, and for that, he is suffering and we need to do whatever we can to help him.”
The WikiLeaks founder has been indicted on 18 criminal counts after the site published thousands of pages of classified documents related to the Iraq war and Guantanamo Bay between 2010 and 2011.
Assange faces up to 175 years in prison if convicted.
