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Assange to make first public appearance since release 

The WikiLeaks founder returned to Australia in June after striking a deal that secured his freedom…reports Asian Lite News

Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, is set to address the human rights organization Council of Europe next week in a first public appearance since being freed from a British jail, WikiLeaks said Wednesday.

“Julian will be in Strasbourg next week on October 1st. It will be an exceptional break from his recovery as @COE invited Julian to provide testimony for the … Committee’s report into his case and its wider implications,” said Stella Assange, Julian’s wife, on X.

The WikiLeaks founder returned to Australia in June after striking a deal that secured his freedom, but forced him to plead guilty to violating United States espionage law, ending a drawn-out 14-year-old legal saga.

Assange will give evidence to the Strasbourg-based human rights body on Oct. 1, after the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) concluded in a report that he was a political prisoner and called on the U.S. to investigate whether he had been exposed to inhumane treatment.

Legal action against Assange started in 2010 after hundreds of thousands of leaked documents about the Afghanistan and Iraq wars were published. U.S. prosecutors said the massive leak endangered hundreds of lives and that Assange was aware of the dangers, prompting a U.S. criminal investigation to prosecute him under the Espionage Act.

Assange has always denied any wrongdoing. He has been held in Belmarsh high-security prison since 2019, when he was removed from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he took refuge for years.

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Julian Assange is free, but speech is not


Assange was not a spy, but a journalist. He was not a US citizen but an Australian, writes Prof. Madhav Das Nalapat


Julian Assange is back in his home country, Australia, after serving what in effect was a 14-year sentence of imprisonment. Even within the Ecuadorian embassy in London, the founder of WikiLeaks was effectively a prisoner, unable to move a step beyond the walls of the embassy without being arrested. A change in the Ecuadorian leadership saw what must have been a welcome development to staff at the embassy, which was the request from Quito to Assange that was made in 2019 after his 7-year stay to move out of its premises.

He complied, and was put into a police vehicle that saw the start of an equal length of time in the maximum security wing of the Belmarsh prison, which is located in the capital of the UK. As happens in news cycles, after a while the tabloids and subsequently the rest of the media moved on to other subjects. In 2022, Stella Devant and Julian Assange, who had met in the prison where he was being kept, knew they were in love

 with each other, and got married. A lawyer with a penchant for taking up cases involving human rights, Stella devoted much of her attention to what appeared to be an impossible task, securing the release of her husband. She made herself available for comment to whoever in the media or in the rest of civil society continued to take an interest in the fate of the jailed WikiLeaks founder.

Across the world, individuals unhappy at the way in which the incarceration of Assange took place continued pointing to the implications to human rights and press freedom of the Assange incarceration. Over the years, their number fell, but none of this daunted Stella Assange, who continued her quest for justice to her husband. Given her background, Stella would have taken up for campaigning the Assange case anyway, but her efforts got supercharged after meeting Julian and later marrying the editor who had revealed on WikiLeaks the entirety of the information given to him by Bradley (now Chelsea) Manning.

The low level member of the military had been given access to classified, highly sensitive, information. Given the oath of secrecy that Chelsea Manning as a soldier was expected to obey, it was no surprise when she was imprisoned in 2010. The reason was her transfer through encrypted online channels of as many as 750,000 classified documents relating to US military activities in Iraq and Afghanistan. In the melee that had become commonplace in both countries after the US military interventions there in 2003 and 2001 respectively, some of the actions taken by the soldiers resulted in the deaths of innocent civilians.

As a consequence of such combat errors, rising local hostility to US soldiers on the part of local inhabitants resulted in a boost to insurgencies taking place there. It is unclear whether Manning was ever on field duty facing the risk of hostile fire, for her work in 2010 consisted of sifting through intelligence data for onward transmission. Close to 750,000 bytes of sensitive information were passed on by her in 2010 to WikiLeaks, which carried them without any redactions for almost a year.

Inputs such as the sources from whom information was collected ought to have been redacted or removed by WikiLeaks from the published content, for the exposure of such sources may have resulted in the deaths of many of them at the hands of those they had informed on, groups such as members of the Taliban or those Iraqi insurgent groups fighting the US military. Emotional at finding out by so many innocent civilian deaths caused by the military, Chelsea Manning had passed on the complete information available to her. She confided in a friend as to what she had done, and he, as he was legally bound to do, informed on her to higher authorities.

Manning was jailed shortly thereafter. In 2013, she changed her sexual identity from male to female while in prison, and in 2017, was pardoned by President Barack Obama. It needs to be mentioned that by carelessly leaving behind in Kabul details of the sources of information to the US, several were later put to death after the Taliban retook the country in 2021. No one in the US has yet gone to jail for a lapse that resulted in so many Afghans who had cooperated with the US being killed or imprisoned.

Where Julian Assange is concerned, it was probably two politicians, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia and the likely next Prime Minister of the UK, Keir Starmer, who were almost as responsible as the international backers of freedom for Assange led by his wife who prompted the US Justice Department to arrange a plea deal for Assange, which he accepted. Albanese publicly pressed the US for the release of Assange, while the worry in the US was that once he became Prime Minister of the UK, as seems almost certain, Keir Starmer would not agree to extradite Assange to the US.

Under the terms of the deal, Assange entered a “Guilty” plea on a single charge out of the many that were brought under him by the Espionage Act. Assange was not a spy, but a journalist carrying reports based on information given to him by a US soldier. He was not a US citizen but an Australian.

As US Presidential contender RFK Jr said soon after Assange was freed, his case has set a precedent enabling the US government to prosecute any journalist in any country who is involved in the dissemination of data given to her or him by outside sources which are deemed to be classified by the US government. Implications of such a broad authority are grave where press freedom is concerned. It may be added that the government of another superpower, China, had already given itself the same authority. Clearly, free speech is at risk of becoming injurious to health.

ALSO READ: Assange walks free post US plea deal


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Assange walks free post US plea deal

Assange walked out of the courtroom as a free man into the bright Saipan sunshine, raised one hand to reporters before leaving in his car for the airport…reports Asian Lite News

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange walked out of the courtroom in Saipan as a free man for the first time in 12 years after a US judge signed off on his plea deal on Wednesday morning (local time), CNN reported.

Assange walked out of the courtroom as a free man into the bright Saipan sunshine, raised one hand to reporters before leaving in his car for the airport, where he took a flight to the Australian capital Canberra.

Speaking outside the court, Assange’s US lawyer, Barry Pollack, said Assange had “suffered tremendously in his fight for free speech and freedom of the press.”

Speaking to reporters, Pollack said, “The prosecution of Julian Assange is unprecedented in the 100 years of the Espionage Act.” He said, “Mr Assange revealed truthful, newsworthy information… We firmly believe that Mr Assange never should have been charged under the Espionage Act and engaged in an exercise that journalists engage in every day,” according to CNN report.

Julian Assange was released from a high-security prison in London on Monday and had already departed from the UK in a private jet before the world learned about his agreement with the US government.

The 52-year-old Australian appeared in a US courtroom on the Northern Mariana Islands to formalise the agreement. He pleaded guilty to conspiring unlawfully to obtain and disseminate classified information over his alleged role in one of the largest breaches of classified material in US military history.

In the court in Sapian, Assange said, “I am, in fact, guilty of the charge.” WikiLeaks founder, who has long held a deep mistrust of the US, even accusing it of allegedly planning his assassination, was hesitant about entering the continental US, and so prosecutors requested for all proceedings to take place in a day in a US federal court in Saipan, the largest island and Northern Mariana Islands capital.

US Justice Department prosecutors said the court on the islands made logistical sense as it is near Australia, where Assange will travel after his legal battle ends. Australia’s Ambassador to US, Kevin Rudd, and a former prime minister who helped facilitate negotiations with the US, watched proceedings in the courtroom.

At the start of the hearing, the judge reminded Assange that he was back in the US and that this court was the “smallest, youngest, and furthest from the nation’s capital.” The WikiLeaks founder looked relaxed in the courtroom while he sat next to his attorneys.

Asked by the judge, Ramona Manglona, to speak on what he had done to be charged, Assange responded, “Working as a journalist, I encouraged my source to provide information that was said to be classified in order to publish that information. I believe that the First Amendment protected that activity… I believe the First Amendment and the Espionage Act are in contradiction with each other, but I accept that it would be difficult to win such a case given all these circumstances.”

In her sentencing, Ramona Manglona said Assange was entitled to a credit for the time served for his incarceration at a prison in the UK. The judge said, “It appears that your 62-month imprisonment is fair and reasonable.” She stated, “You will be able to walk out of this courtroom a free man. I hope there will be some peace restored.”

The judge told Assange that “timing matters” and she would have been less inclined to accept a plea 10 years ago. She further said that there was no personal victim in this case, Assange’s action did not result in any known physical injury, CNN reported.

For years, the US said that Julian Assange endangered lives and posed a threat to national security. Assange and his whistleblower website gained attention in 2010 after a series of leaks from former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning related to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The website shared a video showing a US military helicopter firing on and killing two journalists and several Iraqi civilians in 2007. Several months later, the website disclosed over 90,000 classified Afghan war documents dating back to 2004.

In 2010, Assange was wanted in Sweden to respond to questions over allegations of sexual assault that had emerged. In 2012, Assange sought political asylum within the Ecuadorian embassy in west London. He stayed there for almost seven years until the Metropolitan Police entered his safe haven in 2019, acting on the US Justice Department’s extradition warrant.

UK officers entered his safe haven after Ecuador withdrew his asylum and invited authorities into the embassy, citing Assange’s bad behaviour. Assange had originally been facing 18 criminal charges regarding his organisation’s release of sensitive information into the public domain, according to a CNN report.

As part of the agreement brokered with the US Justice Department, Assange entered a guilty plea to a single criminal charge. His punishment was 62 months in prison. However, he will not have to spend any time in prison in the US, as the sentence equates to the five years he fought extradition while remaining at Belmarsh prison in London. The deal brokered with the US is the final act of a 14-year-old legal battle that has spanned continents. (ANI)

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Assange extradition moves closer as US provides assurances

The document says that a sentence of death will neither be sought nor imposed….reports Asian Lite News

The US has provided assurances requested by the High Court in London which could finally pave the way for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to be extradited from Britain.

Last month, the High Court ruled that, without certain US guarantees, Assange, 52, would be allowed to launch a new appeal against being extradited to face 18 charges, all bar one under the Espionage Act, over WikiLeaks’ release of confidential US military records and diplomatic cables.

Those assurances — that in a US trial he could seek a First Amendment right to free speech and that there was no prospect of new charges which could see the death penalty being imposed — have now been submitted by a deadline which fell on Tuesday.

The document, seen by Reuters, states that Assange “will have the ability to raise and seek to rely upon at trial the rights and protections given under the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States.” However it adds that a decision on the “applicability of the First Amendment is exclusively within the purview of the US courts.”

The document also says that a sentence of death will neither be sought nor imposed.

“These assurances are binding on any and all present or subsequent individuals to whom authority has been delegated to decide the matters,” it said.

There will now be a further court hearing in London on May 20, but his lawyers have previously described US assurances given in other cases as not “worth the paper they’re written on,” echoing similar criticism from human rights group Amnesty International.

Assange’s wife Stella, whom he married while in prison in London, said the guarantees did not satisfy their concerns, describing them as “blatant weasel words.”

“The United States has issued a non-assurance in relation to the First Amendment, and a standard assurance in relation to the death penalty,” she said in a statement.

“The diplomatic note does nothing to relieve our family’s extreme distress about his future — his grim expectation of spending the rest of his life in isolation in US prison for publishing award-winning journalism.”

There was no immediate comment from the US Department of Justice or a High Court spokesperson.

Last week, US President Joe Biden said he was considering a request from Australia to drop the prosecution, which Assange’s US lawyer described as “encouraging.”

It was not clear what influence, if any, Biden could exert on a criminal case, but the Wall Street Journal has also reported that discussions are underway about a potential plea bargaining deal.

Assange, who is an Australian citizen, has spent more than 13 years in various legal battles in the English courts since he was first arrested in November 2010.

To his many supporters, he is an anti-establishment hero who is being persecuted for exposing US wrongdoing and details of alleged war crimes in secret, classified files.

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Australian PM Backs US Review on WikiLeaks Founder

Albanese expressed encouragement after Biden’s remark in Washington that the US is mulling over Australia’s request to drop the charges against Assange…reports Asian Lite News

 Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Thursday welcomed news that US President Joe Biden is considering a request to drop the prosecution of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

Albanese expressed encouragement after Biden’s remark in Washington that the US is mulling over Australia’s request to drop the charges against Assange for the release of confidential records in 2010, Xinhua news agency reported.

“I believe this must be brought to a conclusion and that Mr. Assange has already paid a significant price and enough is enough,” Albanese told state media Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) television.

“There’s nothing to be gained by Mr. Assange’s continued incarceration, in my very strong view.”

An Australian citizen who founded WikiLeaks in Australia in 2006, Assange is currently trying to appeal his extradition from the UK to the US to face trial for the 2010 leaks.

The UK High Court in March asked the US for assurances that Assange would have a fair trial and not face the death penalty if convicted before making a final decision in May on whether he can appeal the extradition order.

Albanese in February supported a motion raised in the federal parliament by independent MP Andrew Wilkie calling for Assange’s return to Australia.

Wilkie was among a delegation of MPs who in September traveled to Washington where they urged politicians and officials to abandon extradition efforts for Assange.

On Thursday, Wilkie told ABC radio that Biden’s comment was very encouraging.

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Australian MPs Seek to Halt Assange Extradition

Assange has been in prison in Britain since 2019, and is currently appealing a decision by the UK High Court in June 2022 to allow an extradition…reports Asian Lite News

A delegation of Australian MPs will travel to the US in a bid to stop attempts to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, the lawmakers announced on Tuesday.

The multi-party group, led by former Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce and government MP Tony Zappia, said in a statement that they will travel to Washington D.C. on September 20, where they will urge politicians and officials to abandon extradition efforts for Assange, reports Xinhua news agency.

Assange, an Australian citizen, is wanted in the US on 18 charges relating to WikiLeaks’ 2010 publication of thousands of classified documents on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and diplomatic cables.

He has been in prison in Britain since 2019, and is currently appealing a decision by the UK High Court in June 2022 to allow an extradition.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, Assange’s brother Gabriel Shipton said Australians overwhelmingly supported allowing him to return home.

“The vast majority of Australians can’t understand why the U.S. continues to act in a way that keeps Julian locked up in one of the worst prisons in the UK,” he said.

“Even Australians who didn’t support Julian’s actions believe he has suffered enough and should be set free immediately.”

A coalition of nine former federal, state and territory attorneys-general in August wrote an open letter to the Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese describing Assange’s treatment as “troubling” and calling for greater efforts to secure his freedom.

Albanese told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in May that he was frustrated at the lack of a diplomatic solution to the issue. 

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Assange appeals against extradition to US

Two appeals were filed on Thursday to the UK high court in order to contest Assange’s extradition.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Friday appealed against his extradition from the UK to the US where he faces espionage charges.

This comes as UK on June 17 approved extradition of Assange to the US over the spy charges. Assange’s organization had marked that decision as a “dark day for press freedom,” after UK Home Secretary Priti Patel signed the extradition order.

However, now Assange has appealed against his extradition from the UK. This move by Assange set the stage for months of further legal wrangling over whether he should be sent to the US to face espionage charges, reported Wall Street journal.

Gareth Peirce, a senior partner at Birnberg Peirce & Partners who is representing Assange, said that two appeals were filed on Thursday to the UK high court in order to contest his extradition. The court must now decide whether the appeals can be heard.

Assange had until Friday to bring the appeal. Assange’s lawyers are appealing both UK Home Secretary Patel’s decision and also elements of a ruling by District Judge Vanessa Baraitser last year, which broadly focused on whether Assange would get a fair trial in the U.S. The details of the appeals were not made public, as per the media outlet.

The charges on the WikiLeaks founder are related to the publication in 2010 and 2011 by WikiLeaks of a huge trove of classified material that painted a bleak picture of the American military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, and their aftermath.

After the UK court passed the order to extradite Assange, his organization Wikileaks said, “This is a dark day for Press freedom and British democracy. Anyone who cares about freedom of expression should be deeply ashamed.”

UK’s Home Secretary Priti Patel leaves 10 Downing Street after attending a cabinet meeting in London. (Photo by Alberto Pezzali/Xinhua/IANS)

A London court issued a formal extradition order back in April, leaving Patel to rubber-stamp his transfer to the US after a years-long legal battle.

Earlier, Jennifer Robinson, Assange’s legal counsel, had said that an appeal would be brought and that the case could ultimately be taken to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

During the extradition order, Assange’s wife, Stella Moris, in a press conference had said that the UK “should not be engaging in persecution on behalf of a foreign power that is out for revenge… that foreign power committed crimes which Julian put into the sunlight.”

His extradition has been the subject of numerous court dates since his arrest, which took place after Assange sought diplomatic refuge in the embassy for seven years.

Rights groups have expressed concerns over the US’s indictment of Assange, saying it undermines freedom of the press.

“Allowing Julian Assange to be extradited to the US would put him at great risk and sends a chilling message to journalists the world over,” Agnes Callamard, Amnesty International secretary-general, said in a statement. (ANI)

ALSO READ: Hundreds gather to protest against Assange’s extradition

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Assange to marry Stella Moris in prison

The registrar-led ceremony will take place during visiting hours at the prison, where some of Britain’s most notorious criminals have served sentences, including child murderer Ian Huntley…reports Asian Lite News

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will marry his long-term partner Stella Moris inside a high-security prison in southeast London on Wednesday at a small ceremony attended by four guests, two official witnesses and two security guards.

Assange is wanted by U.S. authorities to face trial on 18 counts relating to WikiLeaks’ release of vast troves of confidential U.S. military records and diplomatic cables.

The 50-year-old, who denies any wrongdoing, has been held at Belmarsh prison since 2019 and before that was holed up in the Ecuadorean embassy in London for seven years.

While living at the embassy he fathered two children with Moris, a lawyer more than a decade his junior, who he met in 2011 when she started work on his legal team. Their relationship began in 2015.

The registrar-led ceremony will take place during visiting hours at the prison, where some of Britain’s most notorious criminals have served sentences, including child murderer Ian Huntley.

Moris’s wedding dress and Assange’s kilt – a nod to his family ties to Scotland – have been created by British fashion designer Vivienne Westwood, who has previously campaigned against his extradition.

Assange was denied permission this month to appeal at Britain’s Supreme Court against a decision to extradite him to the United States. He could still challenge any decision from the government to approve his extradition.

ALSO READ-Assange’s options shrink