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Ministry of Culture Organizes Saudi Cultural Week in Jordan

Ministry of Culture Organizes Saudi Cultural Week in Jordan
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Ministry of Culture Organizes Saudi Cultural Week in Jordan

Ministry of Culture Organizes Saudi Cultural Week in Jordan

The Ministry of Culture is scheduled to organize a Saudi Cultural Week in Jordan on September 12-15 as part of Irbid's celebrations as the 2022 Arab Capital of Culture, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported Sunday.

The week includes several art and cultural events that will be implemented by the Heritage Commission, the Theater and Performing Arts Commission and the Music Commission at the Irbid Cultural Center in Jordan. The participating delegation will be headed by CEO of Theater and Performing Arts Commission and Acting CEO of the Music Commission Sultan Al-Bazie, SPA said.

The Heritage Commission is participating with several interactive initiatives that seek to highlight the national cultural heritage, including activating the "Year of Saudi Coffee" through the pavilion of the Saudi coffee council, which is set to receive guests and will offer Saudi coffee and acquaint visitors on its ingredients and ways to prepare and serve it.

The event will also include a screening of a film on the Saudi cultural heritage.

The Theater and Performing Arts Commission is set to display a theater performance for children titled "the cave of tales" on September 14 and 15.

The Saudi national band for music is also set to sing songs that aim at spreading the Saudi musical heritage to the world.

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I Chose Freedom over Justice, Julian Assange Tells European Lawmakers

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange (R) and his wife Stella Assage (L) at the Council of Europe to be auditioned in Strasbourg, France, 01 October 2024. (EPA)
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange (R) and his wife Stella Assage (L) at the Council of Europe to be auditioned in Strasbourg, France, 01 October 2024. (EPA)
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I Chose Freedom over Justice, Julian Assange Tells European Lawmakers

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange (R) and his wife Stella Assage (L) at the Council of Europe to be auditioned in Strasbourg, France, 01 October 2024. (EPA)
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange (R) and his wife Stella Assage (L) at the Council of Europe to be auditioned in Strasbourg, France, 01 October 2024. (EPA)

Julian Assange, the founder of whistleblower media group WikiLeaks, told European lawmakers on Tuesday his guilty plea to US espionage accusations was necessary because legal and political efforts to protect his freedom were not sufficient.

"I eventually chose freedom over an unrealizable justice," Assange said, in his first public comments since his release from prison.

Assange, 53, returned to his home country Australia in June after a deal was struck for his release which saw him plead guilty to violating US espionage law, ending a 14-year British legal odyssey.

"I am free today after years of incarceration because I pleaded guilty to journalism, pleaded guilty to seeking information from sources, I pleaded guilty to obtaining information from a source and I pleaded guilty to informing the public", he added.

Assange was addressing the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights at the Council of Europe, the international organization best known for its human rights convention.

A report by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe concluded Assange was a political prisoner and called for Britain to hold an inquiry into whether he had been exposed to inhuman treatment.

Dressed in a black suit with a burgundy tie and wearing a slight white beard, Assange sat between his wife Stella, and WikiLeaks' editor Kristinn Hrafnsson, reading out his initial remarks from sheets of paper.

"I am yet not fully equipped to speak about what I have endured," he said, adding: "Isolation has taken its toll which I am trying to unwind."

His wife, whom he married while in a London jail, said last month he would need some time to regain his health and sanity after his long incarceration, as well as to be with their two children who he had never seen outside of a prison.

The most controversial leaks by WikiLeaks featured classified US military documents and videos from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in the early to mid 2000s that it said highlighted issues such as abuse of prisoners in US custody, human rights violations and civilian deaths.

US authorities said the leaks were reckless, damaged national security, and endangered the lives of agents.