Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Ben Cohen arrested during DC Julian Assange prosecution protest

Co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s Ben Cohen was detained on Thursday in Washington, DC, while participating in a protest in support of Julian Assange, the publisher and founder of Wikileaks.

Together with the feminist advocacy group CODEPINK, Cohen of the well-known Vermont ice cream company denounced the US government’s legal action against Assange as an attack on journalistic freedom close to the Department of Justice establishment.

Cohen was arrested along with CODEPINK co-founder Jodie Evans for blocking the entrance to the Department of Justice (DOJ) building. They set up shop in front of the walkway, blocking traffic for almost sixty minutes in spite of the intense downpour. This event was documented on camera.

The co-founder of the ice cream company set a “Freedom of the Press” sign on fire and declared, “Freedom of the press is going up in smoke,” at the start of the protests.

“There’s no democracy without freedom of the press because the press is the only thing that can hold government accountable. And there’s no freedom of the press as long as Assange is being prosecuted,” Ben Cohen stated.

Assange, 52, is being held at Belmarsh Prison, a maximum-security facility in the southeast of London. He is awaiting extradition to the US, where he will be prosecuted for violating the Espionage Act.

“It’s outrageous. Julian Assange is nonviolent. He is presumed innocent, and yet somehow or other, he has been imprisoned in solitary confinement for four years. That is torture,” Ben Cohen doth protest. “He revealed the truth, and for that, he is suffering and we need to do whatever we can to help him,” he added.

The creator of WikiLeaks is facing 18 unlawful counts after a number of classified files about the Iraq War and Guantanamo Bay were made public between 2010 and 2011.

If Assange is found guilty, he could spend up to 175 years in prison.

Numerous journalists have denounced Assange’s trial as an attack on the open and free press.

Acknowledgable as an activist and having previously drawn notice for his liberal viewpoints, Cohen went to Washington, D.C., as if expecting to be arrested.

“If you’re trying to fight an issue of injustice, you can scream and yell, you can write, but the ultimate thing you can do is get arrested for it, to disobey the unjust law. So that’s what I’m doing and I feel good about it,” sitting in the walkway that leads to the DOJ building’s entrance, Ben Cohen said to a reporter.

After being detained for about three hours, Cohen later stated in a tweet that he and Evans were released by the police.

UPDATE: Jodie and I have been released from police custody after being held for ~3hrs. It's time for @POTUS to follow thru with his promise — Journalism is NOT a crime. #Dropthecharges and #FreeAssange pic.twitter.com/3960AJZurb

— Ben Cohen (@YoBenCohen) July 6, 2023

On the occasion of Independence Day earlier this week, Ben & Jerry’s bravely stated that the United States was founded on stolen land that it should return. This statement sparked a flurry of discussions in the responses, with some people endorsing the position and others calling for a boycott.