Ben and Jerry’s founder Ben Cohen, was arrested by Department of Homeland Security police on Thursday for blocking the entry to the Department of Justice building in Washington, D.C., while protesting Julian Assange’s detention.
Assange, who is currently in Belmarsh Prison near London, may be extradited soon to the U.S.
Images of the scene showed Cohen seated next to a female holding a sign that read “free Assange”, while police and security officers stood nearby. The Associated Press posted images showing Cohen being led away by DHS officers in handcuffs.
Fox News Digital contacted the DHS to get a comment, but received no response.
Cohen, a former ice-cream mogul who has become a political activist, claimed that after being seen at the DOJ, his presence had no connection to Ben and Jerry’s recent controversy regarding Israel and Palestine, nor their recent statements about the U.S. existing in “stolen land”.
“It’s outrageous. Julian Assange does not use violence. He is presumed to be innocent. He has spent four years in solitary confinement. This is torture. Cohen stated that he was suffering because he revealed the truth. We need to do everything we can to support him, as well as to preserve democracy which is founded on freedom of press.
Cohen had been arrested in 2018 for disorderly behavior at a protest in Vermont, this time for speaking against the jet noise of Vermont Air National Guard aircraft.
