The guilty plea agreement reached between WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and the American justice system puts an end to a long legal saga that raised numerous questions of national security, press freedom and diplomacy. Return to this affair in a few dates.
♦ 2006: creation of WikiLeaks
Julian Assange and John Young melt WikiLeaks, a digital platform which defines itself as an anonymous and secure mailbox allowing potential whistleblowers to transmit classified documents. WikiLeaks aims to publish these leaks of confidential information online, with maximum transparency as its driving principle.
♦ 2010: WikiLeaks makes its first shocking revelations
Wikileaks becomes known to the general public with broadcasting a classified video dating from 2007, where we see an American helicopter carrying out an attack on civilians in Baghdad, killing 18 people, including two photographers from the Reuters news agency. This revelation caused a stir.
In collaboration with major international media, WikiLeaks is putting hundreds of thousands of secret military documents online on the actions of the American army during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The site also reveals thousands of diplomatic notes, telegrams and cables, angering the Pentagon.
U.S. Army analyst Chelsea Manning (known at the time as Bradley Manning) is identified as the primary source for the leak of the U.S. documents. She is arrested and taken into custody. The US Department of Justice opens an investigation into WikiLeaks.
Swedish justice issues a European arrest warrant against Julian Assange as part of an investigation into sexual assault. He was arrested in London and released on bail shortly afterwards. Assange, who maintains his innocence, remains on probation.
♦ 2011: the Guantanamo camp files
WikiLeaks publishes hundreds of Guantanamo detainee fileshighlighting their conditions of detention, medical reports and even the content of interrogations.
♦ 2012: Assange takes refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London
The UK Supreme Court rejects Julian Assange’s final request not to be extradited to Sweden. On June 19, 2012, the Australian took refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London and obtained political asylum. He calls on the United States to stop its “witch hunt.” He will live for seven years in a confined space.
At the same time, WikiLeaks resumes the publication of sensitive information, including millions of emails from Syrian political and economic figures highlighting certain links between Western companies and the Damascus regime. The site also publishes data on U.S. detention policies.
♦ 2013: whistleblower Chelsea Manning is convicted
A Maryland court martial finds Manning, who leaked classified documents, guilty of 20 of 22 counts and guilty of violating the Espionage Act. She declared, on the other hand, Manning “not guilty” of collusion with the enemy. The whistleblower is sentenced to 35 years of imprisonmentthe longest sentence in American history in a leak case.
WikiLeaks publishes the “Kissinger cables”, 1.3 million diplomatic cables and hundreds of thousands of documents, notes and correspondence linked to former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.
♦ 2015: the affair of the Elysée wiretapping by the NSA
WikiLeaks reveals that the NSA (intelligence agency of the US Department of Defense) wiretapped three French presidents, Jacques Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande, causing an outcry in the French political class. In collaboration with Mediapart and Releasethe site also distributes documents on spying on CAC40 companies by this same NSA.
♦ 2016: the leak of hacked Democratic Party emails
In the midst of the presidential campaign between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, WikiLeaks publishes thousands of emails from the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager, John Podesta, hacked by a Russian intelligence agency. This triggers major controversy surrounding the fact that Hillary Clinton used a personal email address during his tenure as Secretary of State instead of the official, secure administration email that was available to him. The involvement of Russian hackers in these revelations pushes American authorities to suspect the Kremlin of interference in the electoral campaign, which Moscow denies.
A United Nations committee believes that Julian Assange is “ arbitrarily detained » by the United Kingdom and Sweden, calling for his release.
Read alsoWikiLeaks, or “the illusion of transparency”
♦ 2017: Swedish justice abandons the investigation
Swedish justice announces that investigations into sexual assault against Julian Assange have been abandoned. Still taking refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, the founder of WikiLeaks obtained Ecuadorian nationality under the presidency of Rafael Correa.
In December, the U.S. Department of Justice indicted Julian Assange in a sealed criminal complaint in connection with the Chelsea Manning leaks, laying the groundwork to quickly seek his arrest and extradition.
Shortly before leaving office, President Obama commutes most of the remainder of Manning’s sentencemaking his early release possible.
♦ 2019: Julian Assange is arrested by British police
Ecuadorian President Lenín Moreno strips Julian Assange of Ecuadorian nationality and ends his right to asylum. The same day, the founder of WikiLeaks was arrested inside the embassy by the London police. On May 1, he was sentenced by British courts to fifty weeks in prison for violating the conditions of his provisional release in 2012. He is incarcerated in Belmarsh prison.
The United States, which immediately requested his extradition, revealed that he was facing 18 charges, including that of ” hack ” and D'” spying “. For these facts, he risks 175 years in prison.
After reopening the investigation against Assange in May, Swedish justice definitively closed this case in November, considering that “ the evidence has weakened significantly due to the long period of time that has passed “.
♦ 2021: Washington continues to push to extradite Assange
In a first judgment, a British judge refuses Assange’s extradition request to the United States, due to the impact that incarceration in an American prison could have on his mental health. The US Department of Justice is appealing. The Biden administration is assuring the UK that Assange would not be held in the most austere conditions reserved for high-security prisoners and that, if convicted, he could serve his sentence in his native Australia. In December, the court of appeal annuls the decision to ban his extradition. Then British justice ruled in favor of his extradition in June 2022, but the case remained blocked on appeal.
♦ 2024: Julian Assange is released after a “plea guilty” agreement
Two British judges grant Julian Assange the right to appeal his extradition. That appeal was to include whether he would benefit from free speech protection as an alien in the U.S. legal system. British justice was due to examine this appeal on July 9 and 10.
But in June 2024, he makes a deal to plead guilty with American justice, which allows his release. He is scheduled to appear in federal court in the Mariana Islands on June 26 for “ conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defense information “. He is expected to plead guilty to this charge alone, according to public court documents. Julian Assange is expected to be sentenced to 62 months in prison, the exact amount of time spent in one of the UK’s most secure prisons, which would allow him to return free to his native Australia.
