Julian Assange to deliver first public address post-release
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The WikiLeaks founder will travel from Australia to Strasbourg on October 1 to testify before a parliamentary legal committee investigating his case.
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WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange gestures after landing at RAAF air base Fairbairn in Canberra, Australia, Wednesday, June 26, 2024. (AP)
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is set to make his first public address since his release from prison, according to his organization.
Assange will travel from Australia to Strasbourg on October 1 to testify before a parliamentary legal committee investigating his case.
Assange was released from a British prison in June after serving time for publishing hundreds of thousands of classified US government documents in 2010. This collection included candid US State Department assessments of foreign leaders, details of extrajudicial killings, and intelligence gathering on allies.
For most of the last 14 years, Assange lived in the Ecuadorian embassy in London to avoid arrest, before being held at Belmarsh Prison. Supporters view him as a champion of free speech and investigative journalism, stressing that he was persecuted and unjustly imprisoned.
Assange was released on June 25 and returned to Australia after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to obtain and disseminate national defense information.
Since then, he has remained largely silent about his legal issues and time in prison, making few public appearances aside from a court appearance in the Marianas Islands and a reunion with his wife at a Canberra airport.
WikiLeaks and his wife, Stella Assange, have provided occasional updates on his health, stating, "Julian Assange is still in recovery following his release from prison."
Assange is expected to attend the Council of Europe session "in person due to the exceptional nature of the invitation," where he will give evidence before the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights.
It is worth noting that the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe plans to debate a report on his case on October 2.
The Council of Europe unites the 46 states that are signatories to the European Convention on Human Rights.
Supporters have long called for a full US presidential pardon for Assange. His case remains highly contentious, raising concerns that journalists could face prosecution under the US Espionage Act in the future.
Chelsea Manning, the former Army intelligence analyst who leaked the documents to Assange, had her 35-year sentence commuted by former President Barack Obama in 2017.
But President Joe Biden, who is expected to issue a slate of pardons before leaving office next January, has previously referred to Assange as a "terrorist".
