Key Points
- WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange says his freedom after years in prison is not “because the system worked.”
- Assange’s first public remarks since his release came during a speech to the Council of Europe in France.
- Assange pleaded guilty to leaking US military information in June, ending a long legal saga.
Julian Assange claims he was released after years of incarceration because he “pleaded guilty to journalism”.
“I am not free today because the system worked,” the Australian founder of WikiLeaks said Tuesday in a speech to the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France – his first public remarks since his release from prison.
He testified before the Parliamentary Assembly, which includes parliamentarians from 46 European countries, about his detention and conviction and their effects on human rights.
“I am free today after years of incarceration because I pleaded guilty to journalism,” Assange said.
“I pleaded guilty to seeking information from a source.”
Assange was released in June after five years in a British prison. He pleaded guilty to obtaining and publishing U.S. military secrets in a deal with U.S. Justice Department prosecutors that concluded a long legal saga.
Before his stay in prison, he where he requested asylum due to political persecution.
The Internet publisher was accused of receiving and publishing hundreds of thousands of war logs and diplomatic cables containing details of U.S. military wrongdoing in Iraq and Afghanistan.
His activities were praised by press freedom advocates, who praised his role in shining a light on military behavior that might otherwise have been covered up. Among the files released by WikiLeaks was video of a 2007 Apache helicopter attack by U.S. forces in Baghdad that killed 11 people, including two Reuters journalists.
But critics say her conduct endangered U.S. national security and innocent lives — such as those who provided information to U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan — and went far beyond limits of traditional journalistic functions.
The years-long case ended with Assange’s plea in a U.S. District Court in the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. commonwealth in the Pacific.
Assange pleaded guilty to conspiring to unlawfully obtain and disseminate classified national defense information.
A judge sentenced him to the five years he had already spent behind bars in the United Kingdom fighting extradition to the United States.
Assange returned to Australia a free man at the end of June. At the time, his wife, Stella, said he needed time to recover before speaking publicly.
His appearance Tuesday comes after the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe published a report into Assange’s detention in a high-security prison in the United Kingdom for five years.
The Assembly’s human rights committee said Assange was considered a political prisoner and issued a draft resolution expressing deep concern over his mistreatment.
