The founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, He has remained out of the media spotlight for more than a week after being released and arriving as a free man in Australia, where his family has asked for respect for his privacy.
The last photo of the activist and editor published by his wife, the Spanish-Swedish Stella Assange, shows both of them embracing under a large tree somewhere in Australia on Wednesday, the 53rd birthday of the founder of WikiLeaks, with the message “Free!” (“Free!”).
The Assange family has complied with their requests for privacy and Julian Assange has not made any statements or posted anything on his X account, where his last message was in March 2013.
The WikiLeaks founder was released from a high-security prison in London on June 24 after reaching an agreement with the US Department of Justice, in which the activist pleaded guilty the following day to espionage in the Northern Mariana Islands, a US territory in the Pacific Ocean.
He arrived in Canberra on a private flight on July 26 after spending the past five years in a maximum security prison in the United Kingdom and the previous seven as a refugee in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.
WikiLeaks announced a press conference at a hotel that evening, but Julian Assange did not appear.
His wife said Assange was grateful for all the support he had received over the years, but asked for time to adjust to his new life.
“(He) wanted to be here. But you have to understand what he’s been through. He needs time. He needs to heal. And this is a process. I ask you, please, to give us space, privacy to find our place, to let our family be a family before he speaks again when he chooses.”his wife said with excitement in her voice.
A campaign to pay for the private jet chartered by Australian authorities to transport the activist has already raised 93 percent of the 520,000 pounds ($641,800 or 593,000 euros) cost of the flight.
The figure of Assange continues to arouse divisions, also among the Australian political class, with the Labor Government mediating for his return and the conservative opposition urging not to give him the status of “hero”.
WikiLeaks became world famous in 2010 after leaking thousands of secret or sensitive documents that revealed secrets in the United States about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the Guantanamo base.
Initially arrested in 2010 at the behest of Sweden in a now-disclosed abuse case, Assange was in the midst of a complex extradition process to the United States, where he faced a maximum sentence of 175 years in prison.
The WikiLeaks founder has returned to his native Australia after agreeing to his freedom with the US justice system, a pact that involved his admission of guilt for violating the US espionage law, although his lawyers and family have asked for a presidential pardon.
Assange’s lawyers say their client should not have been convicted of espionage, arguing that his work was limited to publishing information provided by an informant, as any journalist or informant would do.
The judge in the Northern Marianas trial acknowledged that Assange’s leaks did not cause any casualties, although US authorities said they put American personnel at risk.
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Source: Gestion
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