The WSWS spoke with Gabriel Shipton, Julian Assange’s brother, and Stephen Kenny, the WikiLeaks publisher’s Australian lawyer on Wednesday.

Both men addressed a Sydney protest demanding freedom for Assange which was attended by some 800 people, despite being held on a weekday morning. The featured speaker was Stella Assange, Julian’s wife, who had travelled from London.

Gabriel Shipton campaigns full-time for his brother’s freedom. He has recently toured across the United States, as well as Mexico and South America, campaigning against the attempted US extradition and prosecution of Assange for exposing US-led war crimes.

Shipton produced Ithaka, a moving documentary about his family’s fight for Assange’s freedom. It has been screened by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, the British television network ITV and in a host of cinemas around the world.

Stephen Kenny is a well-known and widely-respected defence barrister. As he notes in the video below, Kenny represented David Hicks, an Australian citizen who was rendered to the US military prison in Guantánamo Bay as part of the bogus “war on terror.” Having helped to secure Hicks’s freedom, Kenny is now Assange’s Australian legal representative.

Kenny has a lengthy record of fighting for democratic rights. He was previously the Chairperson of the South Australian Council for Civil Liberties and has acted in a pro bono capacity for indigenous people, migrants and other oppressed groups.