Assange Brings ‘Instrument of War’ Case Against Nobel Foundation

 

Assange Brings ‘Instrument of War’ Case Against Nobel Foundation

WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange has filed a criminal complaint against the Nobel Foundation, accusing it of misusing Nobel Peace Prize funds by awarding them to Venezuelan opposition figure Maria Corina Machado, who has publicly called on the US to attack her own country.

The complaint, dated Wednesday and submitted to Sweden’s Economic Crime Authority and War Crimes Unit, where the Nobel Foundation is based, argues that Alfred Nobel’s will legally restricts Peace Prize funds to purposes that promote peace and bars their use to advance war or foreign military intervention.

Disbursing prize money to Machado violates that mandate and could constitute a crime under Swedish law, Assange contends, while warning that the Nobel Peace Prize could be used as an “instrument of war.”

The complaint cites a series of public statements in which Machado endorsed potential US military intervention in Venezuela, while defending Washington’s use of force amid its heavy military buildup in the Caribbean. Assange pointed out that she had justified US strikes on boats off Venezuela’s coast, which have killed 95 people to date. The US maintains it is targeting “narco-terrorists,” while the UN has condemned the strikes as “extrajudicial killings.” – RT

Our Take: Reading through the source, it’s actually a pretty impressive document.

Not only does it accuse Maria Corona Machado of serious crimes like “facilitation of war crimes and crimes against humanity,” it also accuses all 30 members of the Nobel Board of Directors, providing the specific criminal code citations and full legal names of the accused.