Julian Assange: Wikileaks founder announces appearance at the Council of Europe

Appearance before the Council of Europe
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange will speak out for the first time since his release

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, who was released in June after a deal with the US judiciary, will speak publicly for the first time since his imprisonment in 2019. As Wikileaks announced on Wednesday, Assange will travel from Australia to the Council of Europe in Strasbourg on October 1. There he will speak before the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, which had dealt with his case.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe is scheduled to consider Assange’s case on October 2, according to its meeting calendar. Wikileaks said his testimony before the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights will take place on October 1.

Since Russia’s exclusion, 46 countries have joined the Council of Europe, which sees itself as the guardian of human rights. The organization is not affiliated with the EU.

Julian Assange returned to his home country Australia after twelve years

Assange returned to his home country Australia at the end of June after a total of twelve years of embassy asylum and prison in Great Britain. As part of an agreement with the US justice system, the Australian pleaded guilty to conspiracy to pass on information for national defense purposes. He was therefore formally sentenced to five years and two months in prison.

This sentence had already been served by his five-year sentence in the British Belmarsh prison. Before his imprisonment, Assange had found asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London for seven years.

The US judiciary had accused Assange of publishing around 700,000 confidential documents about US military and diplomatic activities starting in 2010. The papers contained explosive information about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, including the killing of civilians and the mistreatment of prisoners by US soldiers.

For his supporters, Assange is a hero who fights for freedom of expression. His critics see him as a traitor who has endangered the security of the United States and intelligence sources.

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AFP