The founder of Wikileaks is heard this Tuesday by a commission investigating his detention.
Julian Assange claimed to be free after “pleaded guilty to journalism”. This Tuesday, he speaks for the first time since his release from prison, before a Council of Europe commission responsible for studying his conditions of detention. “I am not free today because the system worked. I am free today after years of incarceration because I pleaded guilty to journalism”declared the founder of WikiLeaks. He has spent the last 14 years first cloistered in the Ecuadorian embassy in London and then in detention in Belmarsh, a prison near the British capital. He was released in June.
“I pleaded guilty to seeking to obtain information from a source and I pleaded guilty to informing the public of the nature of that information. I have not pleaded guilty to any other charges.”he continued. “I hope that my testimony today can serve to highlight the weaknesses of existing safeguards and help those whose cases are less visible but who are just as vulnerable”declared Julian Assange, regretting to see “no more impunity, no more secrecy, no more reprisals against (those who tell) the truth and no more self-censorship”.
He is interviewed by a commission investigating “the detention and conviction of Julian Assange and their chilling effects on human rights”. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), made up of elected officials appointed by the parliaments of the 46 member states, will debate on Wednesday following this hearing.
The debate will be based on a report, carried by the Icelandic elected representative Thorhildur Sunna Aevarsdottir (Pirate Party), which describes “disproportionate” the prosecutions and convictions suffered by the 53-year-old Australian, and describes him as a “political prisoner”. Julian Assange was released last June following an agreement with the American justice system, which demanded his extradition. The Council of Europe, which brings together 46 signatory countries to the European Convention on Human Rights, has constantly opposed this extradition.
A controversial figure
Julian Assange published hundreds of thousands of classified documents concerning the military and diplomatic activities of the United States on WikiLeaks starting in 2010. He also shared accounts of extrajudicial killings and intelligence gathering against Washington’s allies. His supporters hail him as a figure of freedom of expression and investigative journalism, persecuted for revealing information.
His critics see him as a reckless blogger whose decision to publish highly sensitive material put lives at risk and seriously compromised U.S. security. Last June, a plea agreement with the American justice system allowed him to leave the United Kingdom towards Saipan, an American territory in the Pacific, where a judge sentenced him to a prison sentence, already served during of his pre-trial detention.
He was then released and returned to Australia, and has not spoken publicly since, with his wife saying he needed privacy and time to recover. “He is participating in this session in person due to the exceptional nature of the invitation”WikiLeaks said in a statement on social network “the support received from PACE and its members in recent years”.
His remarks before the Council of Europe could, according to observers, undermine the request for a presidential pardon he addressed to Joe Biden to erase his sentence for obtaining and disclosing information on national security.
