1 october 2024 : In his first public comments since his release from prison, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange stated on Tuesday that he is free because “I pled guilty to journalism.” Speaking at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France, he emphasized, “I am not free today because the system worked.” Assange was addressing the Parliamentary Assembly, which includes representatives from 46 European countries, discussing his detention and its implications for human rights.
Assange was released in June after spending five years in a British prison, where he pleaded guilty to obtaining and publishing U.S. military secrets as part of a deal with U.S. Justice Department prosecutors.
Previously, Assange had spent seven years in self-imposed exile in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, claiming asylum due to political persecution. He was accused of receiving and publishing numerous war logs and diplomatic cables detailing U.S. military misconduct in Iraq and Afghanistan. While his actions were praised by press freedom advocates for exposing military actions that might have remained hidden, critics argued that his conduct endangered American national security and the lives of those who assisted U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, claiming he exceeded traditional journalistic responsibilities.
His case concluded when he entered a plea in a U.S. district court in the Northern Mariana Islands, pleading guilty to an Espionage Act charge for conspiring to unlawfully obtain and disseminate classified national defense information. He was sentenced to the five years he had already spent in the U.K. fighting extradition.
Assange returned to Australia as a free man in late June. His wife, Stella, mentioned that he needed time to recuperate before making public statements. His appearance on Tuesday followed the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly releasing a report on his five years of detention in a high-security U.K. prison, with the assembly’s human rights committee classifying him as a political prisoner and expressing serious concern over his treatment.
