WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said Tuesday that he was freed after years in prison only because he pleaded guilty to practicing “journalism,” which he described as a pillar of a free society.
Assange spent most of the last 14 years either incarcerated in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London to avoid arrest, or in Belmarsh prison in the British capital.
He was released from prison in June, after serving a sentence for publishing hundreds of thousands of confidential US government documents.
“I am not free today because the system worked. I am free today, after years of imprisonment, because I pleaded guilty to journalism,” Assange said at the Strasbourg headquarters of the Council of Europe rights body in his first public comments since his release. Has been appointed.”
“Ultimately, I chose freedom over unrealistic justice… Justice is now forbidden to me,” Assange said, adding that he faces up to 175 years in prison.
Speaking calmly and accompanied by his wife Stella, who fought for his release, he said: “Journalism is not a crime, it is a pillar of a free and informed society.”
Assange said, “The fundamental issue is simple. Journalists should not be prosecuted for doing their jobs.”
The classified documents released by WikiLeaks include highly revealing details of the US State Department on foreign leaders, details of extrajudicial killings and intelligence against allies.
Assange argued that his case provided insight into “how powerful intelligence organizations engage in international repression against their enemies”, adding that this “cannot become the norm here.”
‘More impunity, more secrecy’
He said that “ground has been lost” during his captivity, regretting that he now sees “more impunity, more secrecy and more retaliation for speaking the truth.”
“Freedom of expression and everything that flows from it is at a dark crossroads,” he told a hearing of the legal committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).
He said, “Let us all commit to playing our part to ensure that the light of freedom never dims and that the pursuit of truth continues and that the voices of the many are not silenced because of the interests of a few.”
Assange’s case remains highly controversial.
Supporters hail him as a champion of freedom of expression and say he was persecuted by authorities and unfairly imprisoned. Critics see him as a reckless blogger whose uncensored publication of highly-sensitive documents endangered lives and jeopardized American security.
US President Joe Biden, who may issue some pardons before leaving office next January, has previously described Assange as a “terrorist”.
Assange’s timing and choice of location have puzzled some observers.
The Council of Europe, which brings together the 46 signatory states of the European Convention on Human Rights, has little say over Assange’s legal fate.
Assange is still campaigning for a pardon from the US President for his conviction under the Espionage Act.