Disclaimer: This article contains mentions of sexual abuse. Reader’s discretion is advised.
Australian Journalist Julian Assange, the founder of the whistleblower organization WikiLeaks, will now walk free after spending over five years in a UK prison. The legal saga started 14 years ago after WikiLeaks released classified US Military information. Assange is set to strike a plea deal with the US on one count of espionage that will allow him to return to Australia.
Reportedly, Assange founded Wikileaks, a multinational non-profit media organization that runs on public donation funds, in 2006. The platform analyzes and publishes “databases of censored or otherwise restricted materials involving wars, spying, and corruption.” The organization comprises of multiple international media outlets that work with it. These include co-publishers and research and funding partners.
According to Reuters, Julian Assange once called WikiLeaks “a giant library of the world’s most persecuted documents.” He claimed they “give asylum to these documents, we analyse them, we promote them and we obtain more.”
The hit 2023 documentary The Trust Fall: Julian Assange has previously chronicled the ordeal surrounding Assange’s imprisonment and WikiLeaks. Other works include We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange: Revolution Now, The Fifth Estate, and more.
Why was WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in prison?
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has now agreed to plead guilty to a single count of US espionage that will free him from British imprisonment. Al Jazeera reported that Assange’s whistleblower organization has made a few controversial leaks since its establishment. However, it became controversial after releasing classified US military documents and videos from its 2000s wars in Iran and Afghanistan.
This leaked information, which came out in 2010, contained matters of prisoner abuse while in US custody, human rights violations, and civilian deaths. One such leak included a 2007 video of a US Apache helicopter attack in Baghdad. The incident killed several people, including two Reuters journalists.
According to Reuters, from 2010 to 2011, Julian Assange’s WikiLeaks released hundreds of thousands of documents. These comprised secret US military reports about the Afghanistan war and classified files about the Iraq war from 2004 to 2009. Other leaks contained thousands of unpublished US diplomatic cables. The US authorities called these leaks reckless and claimed they damaged national security while endangering the lives of their personnel.
Meanwhile, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was facing a European investigation in Sweden. The court had ordered his arrest on rape, sexual molestation, and unlawful coercion allegations. This resulted in his arrest in Britain in December 2010. However, the charges were later dropped, following which he fled to Ecuador’s embassy. He feared that a US extradition might result in charges.
Al Jazeera reported that Assange remained secure in the Ecuadorian embassy for seven years. In 2019, he was forced out of the embassy and jailed in Belmarsh, London’s high-security facility. The journalist remained in prison for over five years until June 2024, when he reached a plea deal with the US.
WikiLeaks announced the plea deal in a statement that said they “published groundbreaking stories of government corruption and human rights abuses, holding the powerful accountable for their actions. As editor-in-chief, Julian paid severely for these principles, and for the people’s right to know. As he returns to Australia, we thank all who stood by us, fought for us, and remained utterly committed in the fight for his freedom.”
According to a Reuters report, Assange fought his extradition to the US for five years and is finally free now. Several protests have taken place across many countries in support of Assange. His supporters have called WikiLeaks’ releases acts of free speech and journalism.
During his stint in Belmarsh, Assange married his longtime partner Stella, who went on to advocate for his release. The couple also share two children.
