DEKYAS NEWS World Breaking News and Trusted Source
Related Articles
Julian Assange says he was released after years of incarceration because he “pleaded guilty to journalism.”
“I am not free today because the system worked,” the Australian WikiLeaks founder said Tuesday during a speech to the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France — his first public comments since being released from prison.
He has given evidence before the Parliamentary Assembly, which includes MPs from 46 European countries, about his detention and conviction and its impact on human rights.
“Today I am free after years of incarceration because I pleaded guilty to journalism,” Assange said.
“I have pleaded guilty to seeking information from a source.”
Assange was released in June after five years in a British prison. He pleaded guilty to obtaining and publishing U.S. military secrets in a deal with U.S. Justice Department prosecutors, capping a lengthy legal saga.
Before he was in prison, he was where he applied for asylum on the grounds of political persecution.
The Australian internet publisher was accused of receiving and publishing hundreds of thousands of war logs and diplomatic cables detailing US military misconduct in Iraq and Afghanistan.
His activities were celebrated by press freedom advocates, who heralded his role in exposing military behavior that would otherwise have remained hidden. Among the files published by WikiLeaks was a video of a 2007 Apache helicopter attack by US forces in Baghdad that killed 11 people, including two Reuters journalists.
But critics say his conduct endangered U.S. national security and innocent lives — such as people providing information to U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan — and strayed far beyond the bounds of traditional journalistic duties.
The yearslong case ended when Assange entered his plea in a U.S. court in the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. commonwealth in the Pacific Ocean.
Assange pleaded guilty to an espionage statute for conspiring to unlawfully obtain and disseminate classified national defense information.
A judge sentenced him to the five years he had already spent behind bars in Britain as he fought extradition to the US.
Assange returned to Australia a free man at the end of June. His wife, Stella, said at the time that he needed time to recover before speaking publicly.
His appearance on Tuesday came after the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe published a report on Assange’s detention for five years in a high-security British prison.
The assembly’s human rights committee said Assange qualified as a political prisoner and issued a draft resolution expressing deep concern over his harsh treatment.
