Ben Cohen, the founder of Ben and Jerry’s, was detained by DHS officers on Thursday for blocking the entrance to the Department of Justice (DOJ) facility in Washington, D.C., where he was protesting Julian Assange’s detention.
Assange is now detained at London’s Belmarsh Prison and could soon be extradited to the United States.
Images from the scene showed security guards and police officers standing close while Cohen sat next to a lady holding a poster reading “free Assange.” Later pictures published by the AP showed Cohen being led away by DHS authorities while being restrained.
American activist, co-founder of the Ben & Jerry's ice cream company, one of the most popular in the USA, Ben Cohen was arrested in Washington at a protest in support of Julian Assange near the Ministry of Justice building.
— Spriter Team (@SpriterTeam) July 7, 2023
"While Julian Assange is under investigation and… pic.twitter.com/8fBaMYHKmu
The DHS was contacted by Fox News Digital but did not respond when asked for comment.
After being sighted at the DOJ, ice cream tycoon-turned-political activist Cohen said that his appearance had nothing to do with the recent controversy over Ben and Jerry’s views about Israel and the Palestinian territories or their claim that the United States is built on “stolen” soil.
“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. He revealed the truth, and for that, he is suffering, and that’s we need to do whatever we can to help him and to help preserve democracy, which is based on freedom of the press,” Cohen said during the demonstration according to CODEPINK, a left-wing activist organization.
At a different protest in Vermont in 2018, Cohen was previously detained for disorderly conduct after speaking out against the Vermont Air National Guard’s aircraft noise.
