JULIAN ASSANGE landed in Australia a free man today after a 14-year battle against extradition to the US.
The WikiLeaks founder flew into Canberra after pleading guilty to a single charge under the Espionage Act for publishing evidence of US war crimes as part of a deal with US authorities.
The use of the 100-year-old law, originally used to prosecute spies during WWI, was condemned as having grave implications for press freedom.
Speaking at a press conference in the capital, Mr Assange’s wife Stella said she had been “overcome with emotion” when the couple were reunited after his final hearing on the island of Saipan.
She thanked the millions of people who had campaigned for years to help her husband achieve freedom.
But in a stark warning, Ms Assange said that he has now “secured a conviction for news gathering and publishing information that was in the public interest.”
“That precedent now can and will be used in the future against the rest of the press.”
Ms Assange called for her husband to be pardoned, and was hopeful it would happen “if the press unite to push back against this precedent.”
She added: “Because it affects all of you. It affects your future ability to warn the public and to publish without fear.”
At the same press conference, Mr Assange’s longest-serving legal adviser, Jennifer Robinson, said his release was a “huge win for Australia” after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese “stood up to our ally the United States and demanded the return of an Australian citizen.”
Mr Albanese had been lobbying the US to drop the charges ever since his government was elected in 2022.
US lawyer Barry Pollack said that the US government admitted in court that it could not produce a single person who had been harmed by the WikiLeaks publications.
Mr Assange was released from the maximum-security Belmarsh prison on Monday after five years, following another seven in exile in the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
He had been fighting extradition to the US, where he was wanted on 18 counts relating to the release of hundreds of thousands of classified military records.
The WikiLeaks founder faced up to 175 years in jail if extradited.
His release followed a breakthrough in his legal case in Britain.
In May, the High Court granted Mr Assange permission to appeal against his extradition and a full hearing over whether he would be allowed to rely on the first amendment, which protects freedom of speech, if he were to go on trial in the US.
If the court found that he could not be assured these rights, than Mr Assange may have been released. But if it had decided that the US could apply the rights then it would have made prosecution more difficult.
Ms Assange said in this context that “things finally started to move.”
She said: “It revealed how uncomfortable the US government is in having these arguments aired, because the fact is that this case is an attack on journalism, it’s an attack on the public’s right to know, and should never have been brought.”
A plea agreement was signed on June 19 and a bail hearing was held the next day at Westminster Magistrates’ Court.
It was requested to be held in private as the deal was “confidential and sensitive in terms of national security for the US,” a judicial spokesperson said.
National Union of Journalists general secretary Michelle Stanistreet said: “US authorities must recognise international condemnation and ensure no repeat of the targeting of journalists using this legislation occurs.
“While Assange’s freedom is long-awaited and a welcome development, his persecution leaves a stain on the reputation of a country that claims its defence of a free press.”
