Three winners of the Nobel Peace Prize have promoted a manifesto of support for Ruben Wagensberg, activist and deputy of ERC. Jody Williams, Alfonso Pérez Esquivel and Najet Zammouri have signed the text in favor of Wagensberg before the accusation of terrorism in the framework of the cause of the Democratic Tsunami.
Also signing the manifesto are Federico Mayor Zaragoza, former director general of UNESCO (1987-1999); Feridoon Aryan, former spokesperson for UNICEF in Afghanistan, and academics such as John Paul Lederach, Dr. Thomas Schmidinger and Harsha Walia. The people who have signed the manifesto reject the accusation of terrorism and warn that it is used to “deactivate and discredit political dissidents and social movements.”
In addition to Williams, Pérez Esquivel and Zammouri (the three Nobel Peace Prize winners), among the signatories there are also victims of Islamic State terrorism who see with “concern” how terrorism is trivialized. In addition, they highlight how Wagensberg “has helped hundreds of people escape from countries such as Syria, Iraq or Afghanistan.”
It is also signed by women’s rights activist Sara Bahai; film director Sahra Mande; the first Spanish conscientious objector to military service for political reasons, Pepe Beunza; and entities such as Foundation of the Families of ISIS, Red Cross in Kurdistan, Casa Terra, or Casa Nostra Casa Vostra, among many others.
Several organizations such as Amnesty International, the World Organization against Torture, the European Civic Forum or the International Institute for Nonviolent Action, among others, published a joint statement last February asking the courts to abandon the accusation.
Wagensberg left for Switzerland in the face of the legal pirouettes of Judge Manuel García-Castellón in the Democratic Tsunami case, moves with which the magistrate tried to support the accusation of terrorism. According to the messages intercepted by the Civil Guard, Wagensberg collaborated with the businessman and editor Oriol Soler to write some of the Tsunami communications and design his communication strategy. The Wagensberg support group activated a support campaign this Wednesday, as well as the website justiceforwagensberg.com.
The people and organizations that sign the manifesto recognize Wagensberg’s career in benefiting the culture of peace and in defense of Human Rights, and “flatly” reject the accusation of terrorism. At the same time, they warn that the use of the “false accusation” of terrorism is being increasingly used around the world to deactivate and discredit political dissidents and pacifist social movements.