Jihlava, South Moravia, June 11 (CTK) – WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange will attend through a video conference the Czech 19th International Documentary Film Festival in Jihlava to be held from October 27 until November 1, its director Marek Hovorka has said.
Assange, an Australian publisher and journalist, has been living in political asylum at the Ecuadorean embassy in London for three years. In 2010, he was arrested on suspicion of sexual abuse of two women in Sweden. He was later released on bail. When British courts decided to extradite him to Sweden, he found asylum at the Ecuadorean embassy.
He says the Swedish arrest warrant is but a pretext for his extradition to the United States since WikiLeaks released many confidential documents on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and U.S. diplomatic offices across the world.
Hovorka said Assange will be a lector of the 5th Inspiration Forum, a platform for the development of themes and reflection of the present that is part of the festival.
The Jihlava festival will be dominated by the motive of Eternity, Hovorka said.
He said the budget of the festival will be around 15 million crowns. It will be partially funded from the Norway Grants and the Czech-Swiss Cooperation Fund for the first time.
The Culture Ministry, the Cinematography Fund, the Town of Jihlava, the Vysocina Region and sponsors regularly contribute to the festival.
($1=24.220 crowns)
