WikiLeaks Wins Trial against Visa and MasterCard in Iceland

WikiLeaks won a lawsuit against Visa and MasterCard in Iceland. The court ordered the local payment systems partner to resume processing donations to the WikiLeaks project.

An Icelandic court ruled that Valitor - a local partner of Visa and MasterCard - violated the contract law when it stopped processing donations for WikiLeaks , Mashable writes .
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Visa and MasterCard , as well as other US financial companies, such as PayPal , blocked WikiLeaks operations in 2010 after the site published more than 250,000 US secret diplomatic telegrams.

“This is a significant victory against Washington’s attempt to silence WikiLeaks, ” the statement said on behalf of Julian Assange. “We will not be silent. Economic censorship is censorship. It is not right. When this is done contrary to the law, it is doubly wrong. ”

“One by one, those involved in attempts to censor WikiLeaks will be on the other side of history.” The statement also says that due to the financial blockade, WikiLeaks could not receive more than 95% of donations, which cost the project more than $ 20 million.

According to the court’s decision, Valitor must restore WikiLeaks service within two weeks, otherwise he faces a fine - more than 6 thousand dollars every day. However, the company plans to appeal this decision.

Last month, Assange asked for political asylum in Ecuador, losing an appeal against extradition from the UK to Sweden. He is wanted by the Swedish authorities on charges of sexual harassment, but he himself believes that Sweden will send him to the US to be convicted for activities related to WikiLeaks .