Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, made his first public appearance this week since his release from prison in June, delivering a scathing critique of the "system" that had held him captive for years.
Speaking to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe's legal and human rights committee in Strasbourg, France, Assange detailed the personal toll his detention and subsequent conviction had taken on him.
According to Newsweek, Assange's testimony was part of the assembly's broader focus on human rights issues. The assembly, comprising lawmakers from 46 European nations, listened attentively as Assange declared, "I am not free today because the system worked. I am free today after years of incarceration because I pled guilty to journalism."
Assange further elaborated on his 'guilty' plea, stating, "I pled guilty to seeking information from a source. I pled guilty to obtaining information from a source. And I pled guilty to informing the public what that information was." His words resonated with a group of supporters who greeted him with signs reading, "Thank you, Julian," as he spoke alongside his wife and Kristinn Hrafnsson, the editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks.
In June, Assange was freed from a British prison after serving a five-year sentence for pleading guilty to charges related to obtaining and publishing U.S. military secrets. His release came after a plea deal with the U.S. Justice Department, marking the end of a drawn-out legal battle. Prior to his incarceration, Assange had spent seven years in self-imposed exile at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he sought asylum, fearing political persecution.
In his address to the European parliamentarians, Assange described the transition from being released from a maximum security prison as a "profound and a surreal shift." He confessed, "It strips away one's sense of self, leaving only the raw essence of existence," and apologized for his "faltering words" and an "unpolished presentation."
Assange, an Australian-born internet publisher, was charged with receiving and releasing hundreds of thousands of classified war logs and diplomatic cables, revealing U.S. military actions in Iraq and Afghanistan. His work was applauded by press freedom advocates, who praised Assange for shedding light on military conduct that might have otherwise remained concealed from public scrutiny.
Among the files WikiLeaks published was a video of a 2007 Apache helicopter attack by American forces in Baghdad that resulted in the death of 11 people, including two Reuters journalists. Assange pleaded guilty to a charge under the Espionage Act for conspiring to illegally acquire and publish classified U.S. national defense information. He was sentenced to five years, equivalent to the time he had already served in the U.K. while resisting extradition to the United States.
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