We're
excited to share the breaking news that Julian Assange this evening is
free for the first time in over a decade. For over five years, Assange
has been confined to Belmarsh Prison in London, as he contested his
extradition to the US. Prior to that, Assange spent seven years in the
Ecuadorian embassy under what a United Nations Work Group deemed to be arbitrary detention.
On
Monday, it was announced that Assange had filed a guilty plea in the US
District of Northern Mariana Islands. Assange, who faced 17 counts
under the Espionage Act and one count of conspiracy to violate the
Computer Fraud And Abuse Act, pled guilty
to single count of conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defense
Information in violation of the Espionage Act. According to the plea
deal, Assange conspired with whistleblower Chelsea Manning to obtain
classified documents without proper authorization. These documents
contained revelations about war crimes and other abuses of power.
Assange, who is reportedly already en route to the Northern Mariana
Islands, will make an appearance in court and be sentenced to time
served. He will then return to Australia a free man.
Chip Gibbons, policy director of Defending Rights & Dissent had this statement,
“We
are ecstatic that Julian Assange will go free. Assange’s only ‘crime’
was exposing US war crimes as a journalist and publisher. The world is a
better place because of Assange and WikiLeaks publishing revelations
from whistleblower Chelsea Manning. Manning and Assange should both be
lauded as heroes.
Yet,
as soon as WikiLeaks began making these historic revelations, the
United States brought down the hammer. Both Manning and Assange were
subject to what UN officials described as torture. Manning was
imprisoned under the Espionage Act and Assange was subject to a litany
of abuses by US intelligence services. In 2021, it was revealed that
after WikiLeaks published information about secret CIA hacking tools,
the CIA considered kidnapping or even assassinating the journalist.
In
2019, the Trump administration reversed the previous administration’s
course and brought an unprecedented indictment against Assange. Although
Obama had normalized the practice of using the Espionage Act to
imprison journalists’ sources, this marked the first time a publisher or
journalist had been charged under the Act. A successful conviction
would have set a precedent that would have allowed for the prosecution
of national security journalists broadly.
Assange’s
freedom is therefore welcome news. And it would not be possible without
the global grassroots movement to defend press freedom by demanding the
US government halt this monstrous persecution.
While
today is a day of rejoicing, it is troubling that the US government
ever brought these charges against Assange. And while we completely
understand and support Assange’s decision to walk free, we are troubled
that the government forced him to plead guilty under the Espionage Act
to do so. Plea
deals, it must be stressed, set no legal precedent. As far we are
concerned, the US government’s decision to charge Assange under the
Espionage Act remains unconstitutional due to the First Amendment’s
press freedom guarantees.
Our
fight is far from over. The Espionage Act remains on the books and
Assange’s victory only strengthens our resolve to end the Espionage
Act’s threat to our democracy once and for all.”
Gibbons has also covered the Assange extradition as a journalist.