Assange’s lawyer Jennifer Robinson said Assange told Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in a phone call from the airport in the capital, Canberra, that the Australian government’s interference in the US prosecution had kept his date intact.
Assange hugged his wife Stella Assange and father John Shipton, who were waiting across the street, but he avoided the media at a news conference less than two hours before his arrival.
“Julian wanted me to thank everyone sincerely. He wanted to stay here. But you have to understand what he is going through. He needs time. He needs to get healthy and it’s a process.” Stella Assange advises newshounds.
Assange was accused of obtaining and publishing thousands of war materials and diplomatic cables, which included details of U.S. military misdeeds in Iraq and Afghanistan. His actions received strong support from advocates of press autonomy, who heralded his role in shining light on military habits that were potentially obscene and warned of the chilling effect on newshounds. Some of the news published by WikiLeaks was video of a 2007 Apache helicopter strike by US forces in Baghdad, which killed 11 people, including two Reuters newshounds.
The matter reached a miraculous conclusion in an extremely extraordinary environment. Assange, 52, One is joining his plea US District Court in Saipan, Capital of the Northern Mariana Islands. The American Commonwealth in the Pacific is somewhat closer to Assange’s native Australia and accommodates his need to avoid entry into the continental United States.
Albanese said Assange told him during a phone call that he was looking forward to playing with his sons, at a time when their father was in self-exile at the Ecuadorian embassy in London for seven years.
“He described it as a surreal and happy moment to land in Canberra, our national capital,” Albanese told Newshounds in the Parliament area. “I had a very warm discussion with him this evening. He was very generous in his praise of the efforts of the Australian Government.”
Robinson said she became “very emotional” when she heard Assange’s conversation with the Prime Minister.
“Julian thanked him and the team and told the Prime Minister that they had saved his life. And I don’t think that’s an exaggeration,” Robinson said.
At Assange’s British court hearing, in which he fought extradition to the United States, evidence of his failing fitness in the US penal system and his potential for suicide was heard.
Assange was accompanied on the flights by Australian Ambassador to the United States Kevin Rudd and UK Chief Commissioner Stephen Smith, either of whom played a key role in negotiations with London and Washington over his autonomy.
Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said the flights were paid for by the “Assange team”, with his government playing a role in facilitating the delivery.
Albanese advises parliament Assange’s autonomy, closest he spent 5 years in British prison Preventing extradition to the US, This was the result of “careful, patient and determined work” by his government.
It is unclear where Assange will move from Canberra and what his future plans are. His South African-born lawyer wife and mother of his two children, Stella Assange, has been in Australia for several days awaiting his release.
Julian Assange’s other lawyer, Barry Pollack, was hopeful that his client would continue a vocal campaign.
Pollack said, “The work of WikiLeaks will continue and Mr. Assange, I have no doubt, will remain a continuing force for freedom of expression and transparency in government.”
Assange’s father John Shipton said before his son’s arrival that he hoped his first-born child would come home to “the great beauty of ordinary life”.
“He’ll be able to spend quality time with his wife Stella and their two children, walk up and down the beach and feel the sand against his toes in the winter, that lovely cold,” Shipton said.
The plea required Assange to plead guilty to a single criminal count, but also allow him to return to Australia without spending a week in a US prison. The judge sentenced him to five years, which he had already spent behind bars in Britain. Preventing extradition to the United States on espionage charges, which could have carried a lengthy prison sentence if convicted. Before this he had been hiding in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London for seven years.
This realization allows each party to express happiness.
The Justice Division, facing a defendant who had already served a substantial prison sentence, was able to resolve—without going to trial—a case that raised thorny criminal issues and which likely would have failed a jury anyway. Couldn’t reach. Tough day in the extradition process. Assange, for his part, indicated a disappointing satisfaction with the answers, stating in court that despite the fact that he believed the spying work violated the First Amendment, he had committed resources to the newspaper. Cleared the ill effects of asking for classified data.
The filing, disclosed in a relatively impressive Justice Department letter on Monday night, represents the first — and possibly final — bankruptcy in a court battle involving the eccentric Australian computer expert, who has been hailed by supporters as a transparency warrior. Has been celebrated as. However, it has been criticized by national security advocates, who insist that their behavior endangers lives and goes far beyond the boundaries of traditional journalistic projects.
Prosecutors alleged that Assange collaborated with former military intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to obtain the data, including a plot to crack Defense Department laptop passwords, and printed them without regard to US national security. Prosecutors have said the names of human resources who provided information to US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan are some of the key issues highlighted.
The indictment was unsealed in 2019, but Assange’s criminal problems went back long before the prison case and persist to this day.
Just weeks after the largest reported cash drop in 2010, a Swedish prosecutor issued an arrest warrant for Assange in response to allegations of rape by one girl and molestation of another girl. Assange has long maintained his innocence, and the investigation was dropped.
He handed himself in to the Ecuadorian Embassy in London in 2012, where he claimed asylum on the grounds of political persecution, and spent seven years in self-exile there, welcoming a parade of famous guests and making periodic appearances at the building. Happened. Balcony to tackle supporters.
In 2019, his hosts revoked his asylum, allowing British police to arrest him. He remained in prison for the last five years when the Justice Department wanted to extradite him, in the process facing skepticism from British judges who were wary of how Assange might be treated by the US.
Ultimately, however, the decision to sentence Assange to a week in jail in the US contradicts years of ominous blackmail by Assange and his supporters that the US criminal justice system would face him unduly harsh treatment, including possibly Death is also included. Fines – something prosecutors never wanted.
,
McGuirk reported from Melbourne, Australia. Corresponding Press writers Mari Yamaguchi and Kimberly Esmores in Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands, Alana Durkin Richer in Washington, Eric Tucker in Port Pierce, Florida, and Jill Lawless and Brian Melly in London contributed to this file.
Discover more from news2source
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
