About a thousand people today formed a "human chain" around the British Parliament building in London, demanding the release of the founder of WikiLeaks. Julian Assange.

On the banners displayed by the protesters, it was possible to read "Free Assange, no extradition to the USA", "Journalism is not a crime". The line of people stretched across Westminster Bridge, the Houses of Parliament and Victoria Tower Gardens.

Assange, who has been in Belmarsh prison near London since 2019, has appealed the British government's decision to extradite him to the United States, where he faces decades in prison if convicted of espionage under a law that prohibits the disclosure of classified information.

The 51-year-old Australian is facing criminal proceedings in the United States because in 2010 he published on the WikiLeaks website more than 700.000 confidential documents related to the activities of the American military, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Assange was arrested by the British army in 2019 after spending seven years in the Ecuadorian embassy building in London, where he was under the protection of that diplomatic mission.