" If wars can begin with lies, peace can begin with truth "  

Julian Assange, Trafalgar Square October 8, 2011 

Julian Assange is an Australian-born journalist, computer scientist, and cyber activist. He is known as WikiLeaks’s founder, editor, and spokesperson. WikiLeaks is a multinational media organisation that publishes "classified" or otherwise restricted documents from anonymous sources.

In 2010, after revelations about the United States (U.S.) military and diplomatic activities in Iraq and Afghanistan, Assange found himself at the heart of an international politico-judicial affair that deprived him of his freedom. Initially placed on probation, he sought refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London from 2012 to 2019 and was ultimately incarcerated in the high-security prison of Belmarsh. This detention, which has lasted for 12 years, has been considered arbitrary since 2015 by the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (Opinion No. 54/2015). 

Since 2018, the U.S. has requested his extradition on an indictment for various charges, mostly related to the highly contested Espionage Act (see the indictment).

However, all indicate that the trial he will undergo will not comply with international human rights standards. He faces a 175-year sentence — in reality, perpetual and incompressible — which would constitute an inhuman and degrading treatment according to the accepted human rights standards. He will likely be subject to ill-treatment and torture during his U.S. detention, both pre-trial and after his conviction.

In June 2022, the British government approved the extradition request. Julian Assange remains in prison in Belmarsh pending the outcome of the appeal proceedings.

“The Assange case is the story of a man who is being persecuted and abused for exposing the dirty secrets of the powerful, including war crimes, torture and corruption. It is a story of deliberate judicial arbitrariness in Western democracies that are otherwise keen to present themselves as exemplary in the area of human rights. It is a story of wilful collusion by intelligence services behind the backs of national parliaments and the general public. It is a story of manipulated and manipulative reporting in the mainstream media for the purpose of deliberately isolating, demonizing, and destroying a particular individual. It is the story of a man who has been scapegoated”

Nils Melzer, former Special Rapporteur on Torture of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, The Assange Affair, History of a Political Persecution, Critique Eds, 2022, p. 9.

A theatre forum

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Our theatre forum was born from the desire to tell the story of a controversial man - a high-tech terrorist for some, a revolutionary hero for others - and then to question what he actually represents in a much broader scale.

Both a tragic and an exemplary figure, we wanted to bring together in the same space witnesses/experts and artists who would meet to tell the story of Julian Assange in all its complexity and confront the image we have of him with the concrete facts. For us, this forum is a place to construct a narrative, "an institute of history(s) and documentation" to quote the words of director Milo Rau, whose work has inspired us.

We do not claim to be neutral or exhaustive and we have no intention of substituting ourselves for the state or the international justice system that will deal with this case. It is a challenge to go beyond the strictly political and/or legal framework in order to create a cultural work, even more so when it is directly linked with current events. The difficulty is to deal with a situation that is taking place in the present time and whose political and judicial outcome is not yet known. The creation of a forum for the theatre seemed to us the most obvious solution to work around this dilemma.

At the crossroads of documentary theatre and an academic conference, our forum attempts to open up a public debate through a vehicle in which witnesses are invited to share their expertise and testimony with the public, who are in turns invited to participate actively in the process. 

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PROLOGUE

with Sarah Siré

ACTE 1 – The New Prometheus

with Sahra Datoussaid, Manon Ayçoberry & Lea Kauffmann Naas with Kristinn Hrafnsson, Editor in chief of WikiLeaks, Mohamedou Ould Slahi, Author, Geoffroy de Lagasnerie, Sociologist and Philosopher

ACTE 2 – Washington’s Wrath

with Laurent Dauré, Freelance Journalist, Rafael Correa (video), President of Ecuador from 2007 to 2017, Annemie Schaus, Julian Assange’s former Lawyer, President of the ULB, Baltasar Garzon, Christophe Marchand & Jennifer Robinson (video), Julian Assange’s Lawyers

ACTE 3 – Between Scylla and Charybdis

with Stella Assange, Julian Assange’s wife, Derek Summerfield, Psychiatrist of the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture from 1991 to 2000, Julien Pieret, Director of the centre for public and social law at the ULB, Françoise Tulkens (video), Belgian judge at the European Court of Human Rights from 1998 to 2012

ACTE 4 – Beyond Julian Assange

with Diane Bernard, Philosopher of Law, Denis Robert, Author and investigative Journalist, Stefania Maurizi, Investigative Journalist

EPILOGUE

with Stella Assange

Stella Assange grew up in Southern Africa before moving to Sweden, Spain, and then the UK for her tertiary education where she studied politics and law (SOAS, Oxford). She met Julian Assange in London in 2011 when she joined his international legal team. They have two children together (born 2017 and 2019). Stella and Julian married in March 2022 in Belmarsh high-security prison in south-east London.

Diane Bernard is a lawyer and philosopher. After several research mandates in Belgium and abroad (notably at Harvard, in 2014-15), she is currently a professor at the Université Saint-Louis - Brussels. Diane Bernard co-directs the Séminaire Interdisciplinaire d'Etudes Juridiques, a recognised research centre that has been developing a critical and interdisciplinary study of contemporary law since 1973; for the past year, the collective work carried out there has been devoted to the links between law and truth. Editor-in-chief of the Revue Interdisciplinaire d'Etudes Juridiques, member of various editorial committees, promoter of several theses and scientific projects, author and editor of numerous publications, she devotes her research in general legal theory to feminist approaches, articulating philosophy, law, sociology and psychoanalysis. She is also administrator of Fem&LAW, an association of feminist lawyers.

Rafael Vicente Correa Delgado is an Ecuadorian economist and statesman, President of the Republic from 15 January 2007 to 24 May 2017. In 2012, Ecuador granted political asylum to Julian Assange, who had taken refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London when the United States asked for him to be extradited.

Laurent Dauré is a freelance journalist and translator. He is particularly interested in Western geopolitics, media criticism and how propaganda works. A specialist in the Assange affair, he coordinated the publication of the book Julian Assange et WikiLeaks: le combat du siècle pour la liberté d'informer (Les Mutins de Pangée, 2021). He is a founding member of the Assange Support Committee (France).

Geoffroy de Lagasnerie is a sociologist and philosopher. He is a professor at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d'Arts de Paris-Cergy. He is the author of L'Art de la révolte. Snowden, Assange, Mannning

Baltasar Garzón is a Spanish lawyer and politician. He is known abroad as an investigating judge for his investigations into terrorism, corruption and crimes committed in Argentina and Chile by the dictatorships. His proceedings have brought him sympathy but also legal trouble: in 2012 he was suspended from the judiciary for eleven years by the Spanish Supreme Court for ordering the illegal listening and recording of discussions between jailed suspects and their lawyers. Garzón gained international notoriety by issuing an arrest warrant for former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet to hear his case on the death and torture of Spanish citizens following the 1973 coup in Chile. The prosecution was based on the report of the Chilean Truth Commission (1990-1991), as well as on a cable from FBI agent Robert Scherrer concerning Operation Condor. After Pinochet's death, he continued to investigate money laundering during the dictatorship. It was in this process that he also tried to hear former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger about his dealings with the authoritarian regimes in Latin America in the 1970s and what became known as 'Operation Condor'.  Garzón brought genocide charges against Argentine officials for the disappearance of Spanish citizens during the Argentine dictatorship from 1976 to 1983. In April 2001, he asked the Council of Europe to exclude Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi as a member of the Council's parliamentary assembly (investigation into his Telecinco).  In December 2001, Garzón started an investigation into the foreign accounts of Spain's second largest bank BBVA, for the crime of money laundering.  In January 2003, the magistrate criticised the US government for detaining al-Qaeda suspects at the Guantánamo military base in Cuba. He also campaigned against the 2003 Iraq war.

Kristinn Hrafnsson is an Icelandic investigative journalist. He is the editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks. He was the spokesperson for WikiLeaks from 2010 to 2017.

Christophe Marchand is a lecturer in Public International Law at the ULB and a former member of the board of the Belgian Human Rights League. He has represented the Belgian Bar Association in discussing new legal measures in criminal law at government and parliamentary level, and is involved in regular cooperation with two important human rights organisations in particular: Fair Trials International (London) and the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR - Berlin). He led the defence team that secured the conviction of Belgium in a key case related to the use of evidence obtained under torture (El Haski v Belgium, ECHR, 25.09.2012). He also won the following cases related to extradition, police violence or violence against women: Ouabour v. Belgium, ECHR (2015), Bouid v. Belgium, ECHR (2015), BV v. Belgium, ECHR (2017), de Moffarts v. Belgium, ECHR (2017), Prisacaru v. Belgium, ECHR (2018). With his partners at Jus Cogens, he pleaded and obtained the condemnation of Morocco (UN Committee against Torture, 22.05.2014) and Spain (UN Human Rights Committee, 28.08.2014) in the case of a Belgian-Moroccan national illegally extradited by Spain to Morocco, tortured by Morocco, and left in Moroccan gaols without consular assistance from the Belgian embassy. Christophe Marchand has also litigated asylum cases, including before the European Court of Justice (Lounani v Belgium, 2017). He has extensive experience in litigating international extradition cases, including at Interpol or other international level, representing for example Julian Assange, the Catalan government in exile or President Rafael Correa and former members of his government or persecuted political group. He also works with his team on issues related to the reparation of Belgian colonial crimes in Congo (assassination of former Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba and plundering of cultural and economic wealth).

Stefania Maurizi is an investigative journalist currently contributing to the major Italian daily Il Fatto Quotidiano, after working for the last 14 years for la Repubblica, consistently rated among the top two Italian newspapers, and for l’Espresso, the most important Italian newsmagazine. She has worked with Julian Assange and his organisation “WikiLeaks” since 2009, teaming up with large teams of international media to cover and investigate all WikiLeaks' secret documents: from the secret files on the war in Afghanistan (Afghan War Logs) to the US diplomacy cables (Cablegate), from the files on the Guantanamo detainees (Gitmo Files) on up to the most recent revelations about the European military mission against boats travelling from Libya to Italy smuggling migrants and refugees and the espionage activities against French and the European leaders by the National Security Agency (Nsa). She worked with US journalist Glenn Greenwald on the top secret files leaked by Edward Snowden concerning Italy and headed the journalistic research for “Snowden's Great Escape”, a documentary film coproduced by the German and Danish public broadcasters, “Ndr” and “Dr” respectively. She investigated serious cases of environmental pollution, the harsh conditions of the Pakistani workers working in a major Italian garment factory based in Pakistan, the serious problems of the Italian nuclear decommissioning programme, and interviewed the elusive A.Q. Khan, the father of the Pakistani atomic bomb.

Mohamedou Ould Slahi was born in Rosso, Mauritania, the ninth of twelve children of a camel herder. His family moved to the capital of Nouakchott when he was a child, where he attended school and earned a scholarship to study electrical engineering at Gerhard-Mercator University in Duisburg / Germany. In 2001, he was living and working in his home country of Mauritania when he was detained and renditioned to Jordan, beginning an ordeal that he would chronicle in his internationally-bestselling Guantánamo Diary. The manuscript, which he wrote in his isolation cell in the detention camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, remained classified for almost eight years and was finally released, with substantial redactions, in 2013. It was first published in the United States and United Kingdom in January, 2015, and has since been published in twenty-five languages. After fifteen years of detention, Mohamedou was released on October 17th, 2016 to Mauritania. The following year he published a “restored edition” of Guantánamo Diary, filling in the U.S. government’s redactions, and in February 2021 his first novel, The Actual True Story of Ahmed and Zarga, published by Ohio University Press. Since January 2022 Writer in residence with NNT/NITE and De Balie, The Netherlands

Julien Pieret has a doctorate in legal sciences and has been a lecturer at the Faculty of Law and Criminology of the University Libre of Brussels since 2012 and director of the Centre for Public and Social Law of the same university since 2018. He teaches Public Law, Legal Research Methodology and a course on the joint study of law and social movements. His main research topics include the study of the militant uses of law, feminist criticism of law and the European protection of freedom of expression. Julien Pieret is particularly active in several Belgian civil society organisations (Ligue des droits humains, Liaison anti-prohibitionniste, Comité de vigilance en travail social, etc.).

Denis Robert’s work includes novels, essays, investigative journalism and documentaries.  Begin 80’s he joined the editorial staff of the monthly magazine Actuel, and participated in the launch of the Rolling Stone of the 80’s. He was a journalist for the daily newspaper Libération from 1982 to 1995. In 1996, he wrote Pendant les affaires, les affaires continuent. That same year, he brought together seven leading anti-corruption magistrates to launch "THE GENEVA CALL": for the creation of a European judicial area, with the aim of fighting financial crime. Follow Revolte.com, a book of interviews with Noam Chomsky and a dozen essays and stories such as Larry et moi published at the end of 2020. He directs documentaries: Journal Intime des affaires en cours in 1998, Histoire clandestine de ma région in 2002 or Jusqu’à l’ultime seconde j’écrirai in 2018. He is the author of ten novels such as Une ville, Le bonheur or Les rapports humains published in late 2018. From 1999 to 2002, Denis Robert investigated the CLEARSTREAM company. In 2001, his book Révélation$ and his film Les dissimulateurs revealed the existence of this multinational finance company based in Luxembourg, whose name was unknown to the general public until then. In 2004, this company found itself at the centre of a state manipulation that pitted Nicolas Sarkozy against Dominique de Villepin in the presidential race. Prosecuted "for handling stolen bank secrets" by the French justice system in the trial between Nicolas Sarkozy and Dominique de Villepin, he was acquitted in January 2010. In 2012, he created Citizen Films, a documentary film production company. Since 2006, he has held several exhibitions in various art galleries. In 2019, he took over the management of Le Média that he left in September 2020 and created a collaborative and cooperative project, the SCIC Blast, le souffle de l'info, which carries the new online press service blast-info.fr and a new WebTV Blast, le souffle de l'info accessible to all.

Jennifer Robinson is a barrister at Doughty Street Chambers with a broad practice across media law, public law, international law and extradition. Prior to joining chambers, Jen Robinson was a solicitor in the media and international team at Finers Stephens Innocent LLP, acting in key freedom of speech and freedom of information cases on behalf of media organisations, journalists and human rights organisations. She advised on a wide range of media law issues, including defamation, privacy, contempt, freedom of information, national security and reporting restrictions, and intervened regularly on behalf of the media in strategic cases before UN bodies, the European Court of Human Rights and the English courts. Alongside legal practice, Jennifer Robinson has taught at the University of Sydney on the social justice clinical program. She also created the Bertha Justice Initiative, a global program and network to support emerging lawyers into public interest law, providing support and advice to lawyers conducting strategic public law and human rights litigation.

Annemie Schaus is president of the Université Libre de Bruxelles, has a doctorate in law, a degree in law and a special degree in international law. She is a member of the Centre for Public Law, where she was director (2001-2007), and an associate member of the Centre for International Law.  She was Dean of the Faculty of Law (September 2007 - January 2011) and Vice-Rector for Institutional Relations and Knowledge Transfer (2010-2012), as well as for Academic Policy at the Free University of Brussels (2012-2016). Annemie Schaus is a member of the Advisory Board of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, an international NGO based in Berlin. At the University Libre of Brussels, Annemie Schaus teaches at the Faculty of Law and Criminology, Rights and Freedoms, Intersections between Domestic and International Law and coordinates a Rights and Freedoms Clinic, awarded the 2019 Socrates Prize.

Derek Summerfield Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer, King's College London. Visiting Lecturer, National University of Science & Technology School of Medicine, Zimbabwe. Formerly: Principal Psychiatrist, Medical Foundation for Victims of Torture, London. Consultant to Oxfam re programmes in war-affected areas. Research Associate, Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford. War-related fieldwork in Nicaragua, Gaza, Zimbabwe. 200+ academic publications. Campaigner for Palestinian rights and against medical complicity with torture in Israel.

Françoise Tulkens is a professor emeritus at the Faculty of Law and Criminology of the University of Leuven, and an associate member of the Royal Academy of Belgium. She is a specialist in criminal law and procedure as well as youth protection and has published several reference works on the subject, bringing to her work a comparative dimension resulting from her research stays in foreign universities, in particular American and Canadian. From 1998 to 2012, she was a judge at the European Court of Human Rights, where she was Vice-President from 2011 to 2012. Throughout her career, Françoise Tulkens has endeavoured to give a concrete basis to her scientific activities through societal commitments. She was President of the Ligue des droits de l'homme de Belgique francophone from 1996 to 1998, and of the King Baudouin Foundation from 2012 to 2016. More recently, she participated in the United Nations Advisory Committee for Human Rights in Kosovo (2012-2016) and chaired the Commission of Experts in charge of evaluating Belgian anti-discrimination legislation. In 2017, she chaired the International Tribunal organised by civil society in The Hague to examine Monsanto's responsibilities for human rights and environmental violations and in 2021 she chaired the Turkey Tribunal in Geneva on the violation of human rights in Turkey.

Support -

• Nils Melzer - Former UN special Rapporteur on torture - Director of International Law, Policy and Humanitarian Diplomacy at the ICRC
• Noam Chomsky - Linguist and philosopher
• Daniel Ellsberg - PhD in economics, military analyst & whistleblower
• Brian Eno - Musician
• Renaud Herbin - Director of TJP - Centre Dramatique national de Strasbourg Grand-Est
• Eva Joly - Member of the European Parliament from 2009 to 2019
• Stanislas Nordey - Director of TNS - Théâtre National de Strasbourg
• Sabrina Pignedoli - Italian journalist & Member of the European Parliament
• Dominique Pradalié - President of the IFJ - International Federation of Journalists
• Milo Rau - Director of NTGent, writer & stage director
• Katia Roux - Amnesty France
• Cédric Villani - French mathematician & politician

Thanks -

Julian Assange, Baptiste Bérard Proust, Martin Corten, Bruno Ferrand, Marie Laurence Hébert-Dolbec, Renaud Herbin, Nancy Hollander, Beatriz Gutierrez, Lidia Izossimova, Stella Marc-Zwecker, Christophe Marchand, Aitor Martinez, Nils Melzer, Andy Mueller-Maguhn, Stanislas Nordey, Dominique Pradalié, Séverine Provost, Milo Rau, Chantal Regairaz, Katia Roux, Mathilde Roux, Mdeen Savage, Chloé Schlosberg, Cyrille Siffer, Nathalie Trotta, Audrey Ujeneza, Ralph Vankrinkelveldt, Delphine Verger, Antoine Vey & les équipes du TJP et du TNS.

Bibliography

# Nils Melzer – The Trial of Julian Assange – Ed. Verso Books

# Chelsea Manning – README.txt – Ed. Vintage digital

# Mohamedou Ould Slahi – The Guantanamo Diaries – Ed. Back Bay Books

# Geoffroy de Lagasnerie – L’Art de la révolte - Snowden, Assange, Manning – Ed. Pluriel - FR

# Julian Assange, Serge Halimi, Noam Chomsky, Stella Morris, Nils Melzer, Chris Hedges – Hacking Justice : Le combat pour la liberté d’informer – Ed. Mutins de Pangée - FR

# Stefano Massini – Femme non rééducable. Mémorandum théâtral sur Anna Politovskaïa – Ed. L’Arche - FR

# Stefania Maurizi – Secret Power : Wikileaks and its enemies – Ed. Pluto Press

# Homère – The Odyssey

Films & documentaries

# Hacking Justice – Clara López & Rubio Juan Pancorbo

# The Mauritanian – Kevin McDonald

# The most dangerous man in America – Judith Ehrlich, Rick Goldsmith

5 April 2010 – WikiLeaks publishes Collateral Murder

25 July 2010 – WikiLeaks publishes The Afghan War Logs with The New York Times, The Guardian and Der Spiegel

20 August 2010 – Arrest warrant issued for Mr Assange on suspicion of rape

21 August 2010 – Swedish prosecutor Eva Finné cancels the arrest warrant

22 October 2010 – WikiLeaks publishes The Iraq War Logs with The New York Times, The Guardian and Der Spiegel

28 November 2010 – WikiLeaks publishes the ” cablegate ” diplomatic cables with The New York Times, The Guardian, Der Spiegel, Le Monde and El Païs

2 December 2010 – A European Arrest Warrant (EAW) was issued by a Swedish judicial authority for Mr Assange for offences of an unlawful nature (of coercion, rape and molestation)

7 December 2010 – Mr Assange is arrested under the EAW

14 December 2010 – Mr Assange is granted bail

24 February 2011 – A London court validates Sweden’s extradition request. He is required to appear before the court on 29 June 2012

25 April 2011 – WikiLeaks publishes the Guantanamo Files, which were published beforehand by The New York Times

30 May 2012 – The Supreme Court rejects his appeal against the extradition order

14 June 2012 – His application to reopen the appeal case was denied

19 June 2012 – He entered the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he remained for the next seven years

12 August 2015 – Three of the allegations in Sweden became time-barred, the rape allegation remained outstanding

19 May 2017 – The Swedish Prosecutor announced that she was dropping the case against Mr Assange

21 December 2017 – Mr Assange was granted diplomatic status by the Ecuadorian Government

22 December 2017 – A diplomatic note from the United States requested the provisional arrest of Mr Assange under a criminal complaint

22 December 2017 – The Westminster Magistrates’ Court issued an arrest warrant for Mr Assange

6 Marsh 2018 – A US federal grand jury returned an indictment against Mr Assange, charging him with conspiracy to commit unlawful computer intrusion

11 April 2019 – Mr Assange was arrested at the Ecuadorian Embassy and brought before the Westminster Magistrates’ Court where he was convicted of an offence under section 6(1) of the Bail Act 1976 and remanded to the Crown Court for sentencing

1st May 2019 – Mr Assange was sentenced at Southwark Crown Court to 50 weeks imprisonment

13 and 14 May 2019 – The Swedish prosecutor’s office announces its intention to reopen the sexual offences investigation and issue an EAW

23 May 2019 – A supplemental indictment was issued in the United States

24 June 2020 – Federal Grand Jury returns second suspending indictment alleging eighteen counts (the ultimate object of the extradition proceeding)

29 July 2020 – The Secretary of State issued a certificate that the application was valid

7 September 2020 – Mr Assange was arrested on the basis of the new application and brought before the court

4 January 2021 – The Magistrate’s Court delivered its judgment in which it dismissed six of the defence grounds but nevertheless found that «(...) Mr Assange’s mental state is such that it would be oppressive to extradite him to the United States of America» (§353)

5 February 2021 – The US provides a diplomatic note containing assurances about the conditions of Mr Assange ’s detention

5 July 2021 – Mr Justice Swift grants USA leave to appeal on three of five grounds of appeal (the refusal of leave to appeal on the other two is subject to an oral renewal hearing)

19 October 2021 – The United States reinforces its assurances in a diplomatic note (No. 169 of 19 October 2021) in which it refers to the long history of cooperation between the United States and the United Kingdom on extradition matters

27 and 28 October 2021 – Appeal hearings held in a Divisional Court (Lord Burnett of Maldon, Lord Chief Justice and Lord Justice Holroyde)

10 December 2021 – The High Court of Justice upheld the appeal on the grounds that the assurances excluded the possibility of Mr Assange being subject to special administrative measures or detained in the ADX facility (a maximum security prison in Florence, Colorado, USA), either before trial or after conviction, unless, as a result of the assurances, Mr Assange could be released. ” Unless, after entry of the assurances, he commits any future act that renders him liable to such condition of detention ”

24 January 2022 – The High Court ruled on the application for certification and leave to appeal. One of the three questions submitted was certified as an ” arguable point of law ”

14 Marsh 2022 – The Supreme Court refused leave to appeal on the basis that the point raised was not an ” arguable point of law ”

17 Juin 2022 – Priti Patel, Home Minister, signs the extradition order

30 September 2022 – Application for right to appeal to the High Court on eight points of law

Early November 2022 – US response to right to appeal application

Théâtre National de Strasbourg and the TJP - Centre Dramatique National de Strasbourg Grand-Est present Assange Odysseia created by Sahra Datoussaid and Sarah Siré on 24 January 2023 at the TNS in Strasbourg, France.

 Assange Odysseia is a theatrical and people’s forum around the figure of Julian Assange which will take place on 24 January 2023 at the Théâtre National de Strasbourg. Inspired by the narrative form of Homer’s Odyssey, Assange Odysseia tells the story of Julian Assange and WikiLeaks and, with the help of witnesses, experts as well as political and cultural figures, sheds light on facts and events that are little known by the general public.

To ask «Who is Julian Assange?» is to ask «What is he the name of?»   This theatrical forum is part academic conference, part performance art.

Julian Assange, editor of the Wikileaks platform, is in arbitrary detention according to international bodies such as the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and Amnesty International. He is currently being held in London’s high-security Belmarsh prison and could be extradited to the US at any time.

Echoing the urgency of his situation, Assange Odysseia wishes to share the narrative that is forming around the new Prometheus - Wikileaks, publisher Julian Assange and whistleblowers. This theatrical forum re-constructs the journey of the last twelve years: from the journalistic and political project of Wikileaks with Collateral Murder, to the political and judicial persecution of Julian Assange, via the denunciation of the psychological torture of Assange by the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Nils Melzer, to the observation of a malaise at the heart of the democratic system.

This project is led by two Brussels artists: Sahra Datoussaid, actress and Sarah Siré, playwright. Fol-lowing their research on Anna Politkovskaya, based on Stefano Massini’s play Femme non rééducable and Nikolaï Gogol’s Revizor, the two project leaders made the connection with the political and judicial situation of Julian Assange. They then realised the urgency of his current situation and the need to fight against his oblivion.

Assange Odysseia tells the story of the links between transparency, human rights violations and freedom of knowledge. Stanislas Nordey, director of the TNS and Renaud Herbin, director of the TJP, Centre Dramatique National de Strasbourg Grand-Est, decided to include this this theatrical forum in their program, at the crossroads of documentary theatre and a public debate.

To make this Theatre forum possible, they have surrounded themselves with witnesses and experts in Ju-lian’s story, in order to get as close as possible to the facts, and to construct the narrative from their point of view: Stella Morris-Assange, lawyer and wife of Julian Assange, Françoise Tulkens, Judge at the European Court of Human Rights from 1998 to 2012, Rafael Correa, former President of Ecuador, who granted Assange political asylum in 2012, Geoffroy de Lagasnerie, philosopher and sociologist, Stefania Maurizi, investigative journalist, Jennifer Robinson, Julian Assange’s lawyer, Nancy Hollander, American criminal lawyer who has defended Chelsea Manning and Guantanamo detainees, and Mohamedou Ould Slahi, author of the Guantanamo Diaries, as well as other journalists, jurists and legal experts and philosophers...

Press release - EN

Communiqué de presse - FR

Press kit - Assange Odysseia - EN

Dossier de presse - Assange Odysseia - FR

Revue de presse/ Y. Doto - FR

Revue de presse/ Be Culture -  FR

Project

#Sahra Datoussaïd

Direction and dramaturgy

She practiced criminal and asylum and immigration law as a researcher and lawyer at the Brussels Bar before changing direction. While studying drama, she co-founded the feminist association Fem&L.A.W. She now devotes herself entirely to her artistic projects. 

 

#Sarah Siré

Direction and dramaturgy

Director of VILLA by Guillermo Calderon, Les enivrés by Ivan Viripaev, The two-character play by Tennessee Williams, Knives in the chickens by David Harrower, The three sisters or adaptation of the loss after Anton Chekhov. She collaborated on the writing of An Irish Story by Kelly Rivière and on the direction of Tigrane by Jalie Barcilon. She is working on a dissertation on Karl Polanyi's work, The Great Transformation. She teaches theater pedagogy at the Cours Florent in Brussels. 

 

Creation

#Raphael Rubbens

Light designer and set designer

After graduating in set design in Brussels, he worked as a set designer, technician and lighting designer ─ Light designer for Fanny Brouyaux - De La poésie, Du Sport, Etc. / Un Bruit, Raphaëlle Bruneau - Qui Est Blanc, Myriam Van Imschoot - What Nature Says, Javier Suarez - Géodésique,, Agnès Dru - Balansé, Claude Schmitz - Amerika / Inner Worlds, Stéphane Arcas - La Forêt Vert Presque Vert, Manah Depauw - Johnson&Johnson / Eden Central / Kingdom, Catherine Bay - Blanches Neiges, Leslie Marschaelk - Floating Mind ─ Set designer for Clinic Orgasm Society - Ton Joli Rouge-Gorge, Raphaëlle Bruneau - Qui Est Blanc, Transquinquennal - Harry Zouzou Leyens - Monelle, Claude Schmitz - Amerika / Inner Worlds, Claire Gatineau - La Question Humaine, le Cinéma Nova et City Min(e)d - PleinOpenAir

#Michaël|le Grébil Liberg

Sound designer

Michaël|le Grébil Liberg He is a polymorphous worker whose research manifests itself as much through music as a composer, improviser and performer, as in the creation of poetic and visual essays. On stage, he explores solo music from the medieval repertoire to contemporary, experimental and electroacoustic music, performing and improvising in repertoires ranging from the music of Guillaume de Machault to the music of today, including Morton Feldman, John Cage and Brian Eno. He regularly collaborates as a performer with ensembles such as Hesperion XXI (Jordi Savall), Alla Francesca (Brigitte Lesne, Pierre Hamon) and Servir Antico (Catalina Vicens). As a composer, he has explored sound dramaturgy for Dance and Theatre, notably with Michel Vinaver, Gilone Brun, Clyde Chabot and Opiyo Okach. Today, he's digging deeper into the intimate fabrications that lead him to create musical, poetic and cinematographic objects.

 

Communication & Video

#Laeticia Defendini

Communication strategy coordinator, graphic designer and film director

She has collaborated with different artists & actors of the performing arts, and directed short films, & the theatrical feature film Les Enivrés by Ivan Viripaev, directed by Sarah Siré in 2021. 

#Victor Ruprich-Robert

#Camille Malnory

Community manager

After a master's degree in journalism and several internships in the press in Paris and Lyon, she joined the editorial team of the weekly regional newspaper La Semaine in Metz. A multi-tasking and multi-subject journalist, she joined the Cours Florent in Brussels in 2020 to study acting. She is interested in ambivalent characters, clowning and puppetry, and acting coaching.

#Noémie Van Cauwelaert

Community manager

 

Production 

#Fabien Defendini

Event coordinator and production manager

He is a member of the curators' platform Komplot, and collaborates with Elsa Poisot, Virginie Strub, Adeline Rosenstein, Ayelen Parolin, Emilie Maréchal, Véronique Boudier, Carole Louis, Michael Grébil, Sarah Siré, Agostina d'Allessandro, Michael Hottier and Aurélien Oudot. He has worked as an administrator for the Compagnie Thor with choreographer Thierry Smits and curator Antoine Pickels. Responsible for the exhibition Zo veel Many Trees / Abattre with the collective of creators at LaVallée. He is currently working on the development of the non-profit organization Pola, committed to the realization of cultural events in phase with the problems of the contemporary world.  

#Léa Siniscalco

Production and communication manager

After studying law and economics in Toulouse, Léa worked for several years in the Belgian law firm Daldewolf. At the same time, Léa pursued her acting training at the Cours Florent in Brussels where she met Sahra Datoussaid and assisted Sarah Siré as well as other teachers and directors. As an actress, she participates in various artistic projects both in film and on stage and teaches theater to teenagers. Recently, she has been working with Pola asbl on the production and communication of its projects.

#Credits -

A Forum theatre in 4 Acts around the figure of Julian Assange proposed by Sahra Datoussaid and Sarah Siré

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An initiative by Sahra Datoussaid

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PRODUCTION - Wau Holland Foundation & Christophe Marchand SRL

EXECUTIVE PRODUCTION - POLA Asbl

PARTNERS - TJP CDN Strasbourg & TNS - Théâtre National de Strasbourg

SUPPORTED BY WBI - Wallonie Bruxelles International

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FORUM THEATRE - Direction and dramaturgy / Sahra Datoussaid et Sarah Siré - Lighting design, set design and technical coordination / Raphaël Rubbens - Sound creation / Michaël|le Grébil Liberg

FILM DIRECTION & LIVE STREAMING - Film-making direction / Laeticia Defendini - Image & Live streaming ► #Les indépendants - Strasbourg ► Image operator # Robin Pfrimmer ► Streaming operator # Thibault Dutt ► Cameramen # Robin Gontier, Gauthier Humbert, Éric Klinger & Kilian Pfister ► Operation technician # Pauline Bantz - Strasbourg & backstage framing / Niels Ladefoged • Creative Commons License • Wau Holland Stiftung - Video editing / Laeticia Defendini & Victor Ruprich-Robert

COMMUNICATION - Public relation / Frank Barat - Graphic design & Digital communication strategy / Laeticia Defendini - Community management / Camille Malnory, Léa Siniscalco & Noémie Van Cauwelaert - Translation / Randa Wazen • Frank Barat, Rabab Khairy - Web development / Stéphane Martin - Stage photographer/ Niels Ladefoged, Antoine de Peretti - Press relations France / Yoann Doto - Press relations Belgique / BE Culture - Interpreting / Microson

COORDINATION - Production management / Fabien Defendini - Production assistant / Léa Siniscalco

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THANKS - Julian Assange, Baptiste Bérard Proust, Noam Chomsky Martin Corten, Elias Defendini, Salvador Defendini-Siré, Daniel Ellsberg, Brian Eno, Bruno Ferrand, Marie Laurence Hébert-Dolbec, Renaud Herbin, Nancy Hollander, Eva Joly, Christophe Marchand, Aitor Martinez Nils Melzer, Cyahn Monfajon, Andy Mueller-Maguhn, Stanislas Nordey Dominique Pradalié, Sabrina Pignedoli, Séverine Provost Milo Rau, Chantal Regairaz, Katia Roux, Mathilde Roux Mdeen Savage, Chloé Schlosberg, Cyrille Siffer, Nathalie Trotta, Audrey Ujeneza, Ralph Vankrinkelveldt, Yanis Varoufakis Delphine Verger, Antoine Vey, Roger Waters & les équipes du TJP et du TNS

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& Copyright © 2023 - Wau Holland Foundation / SPRL Christophe Marchand / POLA asbl

►Contact -

communication@assangeodysseia.com

►Legal notices -

#Editorial manager -

SRL Avocat Christophe Marchand -
Legal form / SRL - Company share / 18600€ - Company head office / Avenue Jaspar, 128 - 1060 St Gilles - Company number / BE 0839 841 638 - E-mail/ au@juscogens.be - Phone number / +32.486.32.22.88 -

#Web Hosting -

Infomaniak Network SA - Rue Eugène Marziano, 25 - 1227 Les Acacias (GE) - Company head office / Les Acacias, Genève, Suisse - Commercial register of Geneva / CH-660.0.059.996-1 - Company number / CHE-103.167.648 - VAT number / CHE-103.167.648 - Phone number / +41 (0)22 820 35 55