Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, returned home to his native Australia on Wednesday, a free man. A rousing homecoming greeted the embattled advocate for freedom of speech as he “disembarked from a private jet.” He cut a deal with U.S. authorities, pleading guilty on violating U.S. espionage law. He’s been on the run or in jail for the past 14 years.
Assange free in Australia
The private plane carrying Julian Assange touched down at Australia’s Canberra airport just after 7:30 p.m. local time.
The impassioned advocate for transparency appeared healthy as he waved “to waiting media and cheering supporters before passionately kissing his wife, Stella, and lifting her off the ground.”
Assange also “embraced his father before entering the terminal building with his legal team.” He hasn’t issued a statement yet. In fact, he hasn’t spoken publicly at all since he was released.
This is awesome to see! Julian Assange is home with his family..
— Matt Couch (@RealMattCouch) June 26, 2024
Wikileaks held a press conference but he wasn’t there. His wife, Stella, informed the press that “it was too soon to say what her husband would do next.”
The man’s been through a lot and needs a little space, she reminded. “Julian needs time to recover, to get used to freedom. I want Julian to have that space to rediscover that freedom.” Stella Assange is convinced that her husband is sure to get a pardon.
In fact, Australia’s Prime Minister is working on that very project. Anthony Albanese not only lobbied for years to get the activist freed, “he had spoken to him by phone after his plane landed.”
Stand up for their citizens
Prime Minister Albanese couldn’t wait to relate that he “had a very warm discussion” with Assange. “He was very generous in his praise of the Australian government’s efforts. The Australian government stands up for Australian citizens, that’s what we do.”
He can give him a pardon in Australia but the espionage charge is a U.S. one. Donald Trump already is on record offering him a pardon and Joe Biden doesn’t look like he’s going to be a threat for much longer.
For the past decade-and-a-half, Assange has been through “a saga in which he spent more than five years in a British high-security jail and seven years in asylum at the Ecuadorean embassy in London battling extradition to Sweden.” We wanted him for spying and the Swedes had a sex assault allegation against him.
Awesome video of Julian Assange reunited with his wife and father. pic.twitter.com/3YMzg4BaX7
— ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? (@Texas_jeep__guy) June 26, 2024
The whole thing was a result of “WikiLeaks’ release in 2010 of hundreds of thousands of classified U.S. military documents on Washington’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.” That happened to be “one of the largest breaches of secret information in U.S. history.”
Assange didn’t steal the documents, he only published them. To this day, he insists he did nothing wrong. “Working as a journalist I encouraged my source to provide information that was said to be classified in order to publish that information,” he told the court in his recent plea deal hearing.
“I believed the First Amendment protected that activity but I accept that it was…a violation of the espionage statute.“
