WikiLeaks founder Assange says he was found guilty of 'journalism': 'Freedom of expression is at a dark crossroads'

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange stated that after years of imprisonment, he was released not because the justice system worked, but because he 'accepted the crime of journalism,' and criticized the state of freedom of expression.

The founder of the WikiLeaks website made his first public statement following his years-long imprisonment.

Speaking at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in Strasbourg, Assange stated that he was released because he 'pleaded guilty to journalism.'

Pointing to the justice system, Assange said, 'I am not free today because the system worked. I am free today because I pleaded guilty to journalism.'

Assange, who was released following a plea deal with the US to 'admit to an espionage charge,' said he 'chose freedom over justice that could not be fulfilled.'

Assange stated that the agreement with the US included conditions that he would not file an application to the European Court of Human Rights against the US government and would not invoke the Freedom of Information Act, adding, 'Justice was denied to me.'

WikiLeaks had published a large number of classified documents belonging to US government agencies. The published documents served as evidence that the US had committed war crimes in various parts of the world, particularly in Iraq.

'LET THE VOICE OF THE MAJORITY NOT BE SILENCED BY THE INTERESTS OF THE MINORITY'

Explaining that he would have spent many more years behind bars had he pursued the case to the end, Assange said he lost the last 14 years of his life under house arrest, in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, and in Belmarsh Prison in the same city.

Expressing that he observed 'more impunity, more secrecy, and more retaliation against those who tell the truth' during the years he lost, Assange used the phrase, 'Freedom of expression and everything that follows from it is at a dark crossroads.'

Assange called on everyone to 'do their part so that the light of freedom does not fade, the voice of the majority is not silenced by the interests of the minority, and to continue pursuing the truth.'

Emphasizing that journalism is not a crime but rather a 'pillar of a free and informed society,' Assange noted that journalists should not be investigated for doing their jobs.

Assange had stayed in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London for 7 years after an arrest warrant was issued for him.

THE WIKILEAKS CASE AND ASSANGE'S TRIAL

WikiLeaks, founded by Julian Assange, published 251,000 classified documents on October 28, 2010, which also provided evidence of crimes committed by the US in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Assange was removed from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he had taken refuge in June 2012, on April 11, 2019, and was arrested for "violating bail conditions" and placed in Belmarsh Prison in London.

The US requested Assange's extradition from the UK, and the UK High Court had requested assurances from the US that Assange would not be sentenced to death and would receive a fair trial.

Following a plea deal reached in June with the US to admit to 'violating the Espionage Act,' Julian Assange was permitted to leave the UK, where he had been imprisoned for 5 years, to travel to his home country of Australia.

As part of the agreement, Assange appeared in court in the Northern Mariana Islands, a US territory near the Asian coast of the Pacific Ocean, and was sent to Australia, with the time he spent in prison in the UK taken into account.

News Source: AA