In his first public intervention since his release from prison, whistleblower Julian Assange pleaded Tuesday before a Council of Europe committee for freedom of information, portraying himself as persecuted by the United States.
The WikiLeaks founder, who spent the last 14 years first cloistered in the Ecuadorian embassy in London and then in detention at Belmarsh, a prison near the British capital, arrived at 8:00 a.m. (06:00 GMT) at the institution based in Strasbourg, in eastern France.
Heard by a commission investigating “the detention and conviction of Julian Assange and their dissuasive effects on human rights”, he was applauded at his installation before the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), raising his fist in reaction.
“I regret how much ground has been lost during this time. How telling the truth has been stigmatized, attacked, weakened and diminished. I see more impunity, more secrecy, retaliation for telling the truth and more self-censorship,” he declared in a long introductory statement.
“I want to be perfectly clear: I am not free today because the system worked. I am free today, after years of incarceration, because I pleaded guilty to engaging in journalism.” , he continued.
– Persecuted by the United States –
Last June, he reached an agreement with the American justice system, which demanded his extradition and threatened him with a heavy prison sentence.
Under this plea agreement, he was sentenced to a sentence already served in pre-trial detention, for obtaining and disclosing information on national security, and was therefore able to be released.
He then returned to Australia, his wife explaining that he needed privacy and time to recover.
But before the Council of Europe, which brings together 46 signatory countries to the European Convention on Human Rights – including the United Kingdom where he was imprisoned – and constantly opposed his extradition, he portrayed himself as persecuted by the United States and its counter-espionage for his activity within WikiLeaks.
He returned to the history of this site where, starting in 2010, he published hundreds of thousands of classified documents concerning the military and diplomatic activities of the United States, as well as accounts of extrajudicial executions and intelligence gathering against Washington’s allies.
– “Search for truth” –
Activities that made him a figure of free speech for his supporters, and a reckless blogger who put lives at risk and seriously compromised the security of the United States for his detractors.
He claimed that his guilty plea agreement prevented him from pursuing further legal proceedings in the United States.
“This is why it is so important that (…) norm-creating institutions like PACE act to make it clear that what happened to me should not happen to others,” he said. he insisted.
“Let us all commit to doing our part to ensure that the light of freedom never fades, that the search for truth continues, and that the interests of a few do not silence the voices of the many.”
His plea could undermine the request for a presidential pardon he made to Joe Biden.
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), made up of elected officials appointed by the parliaments of the 46 member states, is due to debate on Wednesday following this hearing.
The debate will be based on a report, carried by Icelandic MP Thorhildur Sunna Aevarsdottir (Pirate Party), which describes the prosecutions and convictions suffered by the 53-year-old Australian as “disproportionate”, and describes him as a “political prisoner”.
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