Julian Assange made his first public appearance since his release after a plea deal with the United States, stating he chose “freedom over unrealisable justice.” In a speech to European lawmakers on Tuesday in Strasbourg, France, Assange urged the need for greater protections for journalists.
Assange was released in June after reaching a plea deal with U.S. authorities. He pleaded guilty to one felony charge of conspiring to obtain and disclose classified U.S. national defense documents, receiving a 62-month sentence, effectively time served. This marked the end of nearly 14 years of confinement, including his time in London’s high-security Belmarsh Prison, at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, and under house arrest in the UK.
Speaking at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), Assange told the committee on legal affairs and human rights that he had to make the difficult choice between pursuing “unrealisable justice” or gaining his freedom. Assange emphasized that he is not free because the legal system worked but because he “pleaded guilty to journalism.” He described his plea deal as a necessary compromise, given that existing legal protections for whistleblowers and journalists are “not effective in any remotely reasonable time.”
Assange first gained international attention in 2010 when WikiLeaks published leaks provided by former U.S. soldier Chelsea Manning, revealing incidents of the U.S. army in Iraq killing unarmed civilians. This was followed by the release of over 250,000 U.S. diplomatic cables, which caused a global diplomatic crisis and intensified the U.S. government’s efforts to prosecute Assange.
In 2019, Assange was arrested by British authorities after Ecuador withdrew his asylum, and he was held in Belmarsh Prison. He faced 18 criminal charges in the U.S. related to WikiLeaks’ publication of classified material, which could have resulted in a 175-year prison sentence. The plea deal ended these legal battles, but Assange made it clear that “justice, for me, is now precluded.”
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