{"id":58354,"date":"2024-06-27T04:03:05","date_gmt":"2024-06-27T04:03:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/index.php\/2024\/06\/27\/julian-assange-lands-in-australia-a-free-man\/"},"modified":"2024-06-27T04:03:05","modified_gmt":"2024-06-27T04:03:05","slug":"julian-assange-lands-in-australia-a-free-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/julian-assange-lands-in-australia-a-free-man\/","title":{"rendered":"Julian Assange lands in Australia a free man"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Julian Assange has landed back home in his native Australia, after a plea deal allowed him to walk free from a London prison.<\/strong><\/p>\n

There were emotional scenes at Canberra Airport, as the Wikileaks founder kissed his wife and hugged his father, his lawyers watching on, visibly moved.<\/p>\n

\u201cJulian needs time to recover, to get used to freedom,\u201d Stella Assange said at a news conference shortly after her husband arrived.<\/p>\n

For the past 14 years, Assange has been in a legal battle with US officials who accused him of leaking classified documents, which they say put lives in danger.<\/p>\n

The 52-year-old did not attend the news conference in Canberra, instead letting his lawyer and wife speak for him.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to understand what he\u2019s been through,\u201d Mrs Assange said, adding that they need time to \u201clet our family be a family\u201d.<\/p>\n

The couple married in London\u2019s Belmarsh prison in 2022, and have two children together.<\/p>\n

The plea deal saw Julian Assange plead guilty to one charge of conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defence information, rather than the 18 he was originally facing.<\/p>\n

The case centred around a massive Wikileaks disclosure in 2010 when the website released a video from a US military helicopter which showed civilians being killed in the Iraqi capital Baghdad.<\/p>\n

It also published thousands of confidential documents suggesting that the US military had killed hundreds of civilians in unreported incidents during the war in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

The revelations became a huge story, prompting reaction from all corners of the globe, and led to intense scrutiny of American involvement in foreign conflicts.<\/p>\n

Assange formally entered the charge on the remote Northern Mariana Islands, an American territory in the Pacific, two days after leaving Belmarsh prison.<\/p>\n

In return, he was sentenced to time already served and released to fly home.<\/p>\n

His lawyer, Jen Robinson, told media that the deal was \u201ccriminalisation of journalism\u201d and set a \u201cdangerous precedent\u201d.<\/p>\n

Echoing this, Mrs Assange said she hopes the media \u201crealise the danger of this US case against Julian, that criminalises, that has secured his conviction for newsgathering and publishing information that was true, that the public deserved to know\u201d.<\/p>\n

His lawyer also gave details on a phone call between Assange and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who has been instrumental in securing his release.<\/p>\n

Assange told the prime minister that he \u201csaved his life\u201d, Ms Robinson said, adding: \u201cI don\u2019t think that\u2019s an exaggeration\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a huge win that Australia stood up to an ally and demanded the return of an Australian citizen,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Mr Albanese held his own news conference on Wednesday, saying he is \u201cvery pleased\u201d that the case is over, adding that the Wikileaks founder has been through a \u201cconsiderable ordeal\u201d.<\/p>\n

The PM has said in the past that he does not agree with everything Assange has done, but \u201cenough was enough\u201d and it was time for him to be released, making the case a priority.<\/p>\n

When asked whether the plea deal may affect US-Australia relations, he said: \u201cWe have a very positive relationship with the United States. I regard President Biden as a friend, I regard their relationship as being absolutely central.\u201d<\/p>\n

The US State Department said its involvement with Assange\u2019s case had been very limited. It added that the 52-year-old\u2019s actions had put the lives of US partners, allies and diplomats at risk, and that the Wikileaks releases had \u201cchilled\u201d the ability of US diplomats to build relationships abroad.<\/p>\n

Assange spent the last five years behind bars at London\u2019s high-security Belmarsh Prison, fighting US attempts to extradite him to face charges over the document leaks.<\/p>\n

In 2010, he faced separate charges of rape and sexual assault in Sweden, which he denied. He spent seven years hiding in Ecuador\u2019s London embassy, claiming the Swedish case would lead him to be sent to the US.<\/p>\n

Swedish authorities dropped that case in 2019 and said that too much time had passed since the original complaint.<\/p>\n

Women\u2019s rights groups in Sweden say it is a shame he never faced official questioning over the rape allegations.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a chapter of shame and betrayal that ends with his release,\u201d Clara Berglund, head of the Swedish Women\u2019s Lobby, told Reuters news agency.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is about a case that takes place on the major political stages, and men\u2019s violence against women is given incredibly little weight.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The post Julian Assange lands in Australia a free man<\/a> first appeared on KBC<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Julian Assange has landed back home in his native Australia, after a plea deal allowed him to walk free from a London prison. There were emotional scenes at Canberra Airport, as the Wikileaks founder kissed his wife and hugged his father, his lawyers watching on, visibly moved. \u201cJulian needs time to recover, to get used […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58354\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}