Julian Assange spoke for the first time since his release from prison in June 2024. Before the Council of Europe commission in Strasbourg, the founder of WikiLeaks spoke at length on press freedom. He looked back on his last fourteen years where he lived in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, or in a prison near the British capital.
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The man behind numerous revelations about the practices of the United States military and intelligence services made a guilty plea agreement which allowed him to be sentenced to a sentence already served in pretrial detention . For his first speech since his release, Julian Assange was widely applauded. He raised his fist in reaction to this welcome, before launching into a plea for press freedom.
“ I finally chose freedom over unattainable justice “, Julian Assange told the Council of Europe in his first public speech since his release from prison.
“ Journalism is not a crime »
“ I want to be perfectly clear. I’m not free today because the system worked. But I am free today, after years of incarceration, because I pleaded guilty of doing journalism. The fundamental problem is that journalists should not be prosecuted for doing their job. Journalism is not a crime, it is a pillar of a free and informed society. »
For more than an hour, the founder of WikiLeaks returned to his conditions of incarceration. “ The experience of being isolated for years in a small cell is difficult to express. It strips the individual of his identity, leaving only the raw essence of existence. »
Combative
He also said he was persecuted by the United States. “ Under Pompeo’s explicit direction, the CIA hatched a plan to kidnap and assassinate me inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London. » Accompanied by his wife Stella, Julian Assange appeared combative. He denounced the impunity surrounding the deaths of more than a hundred journalists in Ukraine and Gaza.
Julian Assange, 53, is returned to his country of originAustralia, last June, after reaching an agreement for his release. Under the agreement, he pleaded guilty to violating US espionage law, ending a long legal drama in Britain where he had been imprisoned awaiting possible extradition to the United States. UNITED STATES.
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