Key points
- WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange says his freedom after years in prison isn’t “because the system worked.”
- Assange’s first public statements 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 says he was freed after years in prison because he “pleaded guilty to journalism”.
“I am not free today because the system worked,” the Australian founder of WikiLeaks said on Tuesday during a speech to the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France, his first public remarks since being released from prison.
He testified to 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 in prison 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 spent 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 ended a long legal saga.
Before his time in prison, he where he requested asylum for reasons of political persecution.
The internet publisher has been accused of receiving and publishing hundreds of thousands of war diaries and diplomatic cables that included details of US military wrongdoing in Iraq and Afghanistan.
His activities were celebrated by press freedom advocates, who heralded his role in bringing to light military conduct that might otherwise have been covered up. Among the files published by WikiLeaks was a video of a 2007 Apache helicopter attack by American forces in Baghdad that killed 11 people, including two Reuters journalists.
But critics say his conduct put American national security and innocent lives at risk — such as those of people who provided intelligence to U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan — and went far beyond the bounds of traditional journalistic duties.
The years-long case ended with Assange entering his claim in a U.S. district court on the Northern Mariana Islands, an American commonwealth in the Pacific.
Assange pleaded guilty to the Espionage Act charge of 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. His wife Stella said at the time that he needed time to recover before speaking in public.
His appearance on Tuesday came after the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe published a report into Assange’s detention in a high-security UK prison for five years.
The assembly’s human rights committee said Assange qualifies as a political prisoner and published a draft resolution expressing deep concern about his harsh treatment.