Julian Assange is back in Europe again. The last time he was here, he was kept behind bars. He testified Tuesday about his years in a maximum-security British prison after being indicted by the United States under the Espionage Act. It was his first public appearance since he was released from prison and returned to Australia. In his sometimes sharp-tongued speeches, he criticized the United States and its allies for their handling of his case. “I am here today not because the system worked, but because I am free today after years in prison because I pleaded guilty to doing my job as a journalist“. This is what Assange said before the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), Europe’s leading human rights organization, in Strasbourg, France.
The General Assembly is investigating his detention and conviction. The appearance of the founder of WikiLeaks was very strictly controlled, the international media faced severe restrictions, and Assange did not give interviews. Backed by his wife, Stella, and WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Kristinn Hrafnsson, Assange said the legal protection “exists only on paper”. “In the end, I chose freedom over an unachievable justice system after being held for years….without an effective remedy” . Speaking about his five years in a British prison, Assange said it was a “relentless struggle to stay alive, physically and mentally”.
According to Assange, the legal system has failed
There were also light moments in the emotional speech: Assange thanked his wife for taking care of his children while he was in prison. The packed auditorium erupted in laughter as she talked about getting used to having a mother-in-law. In Assange’s speech, he also emphasized the topic of freedom of speech. “Freedom of speech and everything that comes with it has come to a dark crossroads,” he said. “Journalism is not a crime, but one of the pillars of a free and informed society.”
Assange testified after a PACE report recently found he was being held as a political prisoner. The report called on Britain to investigate whether he had been subjected to “inhumane treatment”. THE assembly also said it considered the charges brought by the United States against Assange under the Espionage Act to be “disproportionate” and “serious.” In June of this year, District Judge Ramona Manglona sentenced Assange to five years and two months in prison in Saipan, one of the US Pacific territories. For the amount of time he has already spent in prison in the United Kingdom fighting extradition to the United States. Julian Assange’s plea bargain opens a new chapter in the long-running story of a Townsville guy going up against the US Department of Justice.
A new chapter has opened in Assange’s history
Assange pleaded guilty and was able to return to Australia in June this year after spending 14 years away from his country. His wife, Stella, said at the time that he needed to settle into a normal life. After all, before his prison sentence, he hid in the Ecuadorian embassy in London for seven years, fleeing the extradition order of the United States. Ecuador does not have an extradition treaty with the United States. Assange’s stay at the Ecuadorian embassy in 2019 was dramatically cut short when British police stormed the embassy and took him into custody. He was then transferred to the country’s maximum security prison called Belmarsh. Assange has been on the run since his organization, WikiLeaks released secret US military tapes showing the killing of Iraqi civilians and two Reuters journalists by US forces.
The April 2010 release of video of the 2007 incident sparked outrage over the US military’s handling of internal investigations and made headlines around the world. WikiLeaks then published a series of other startling leaks. In total, WikiLeaks published hundreds of thousands of documents leaked by former US military intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning. Later that year, Chelsea Manning was arrested by the US military for the leaks. The documents also covered the war in Afghanistan and revealed that the US military had killed hundreds of civilians in undeclared incidents. Additional documents on the Iraq war also revealed that Iraqi forces may have killed up to 66,000 civilians and tortured prisoners of war.
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