Julian Assange in Strasbourg: "I am not free"
Assange made his first public appearance after his release. He criticized the US justice system in front of the EU Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights.
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In his first public appearance in Strasbourg after his release from a British prison, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange emphasized that he was not "set free". "I am not free today because the (justice) system worked, but because I pleaded guilty to working as a journalist." Assange appeared before the EU Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights meeting in Strasbourg, which was investigating the chilling effect of his imprisonment on human rights. A report by committee chair Thorhildur Sunna Ævarsdóttir will be discussed tomorrow in the parliamentary assembly.
In the hearing before the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, Assange explained that the "freedom of speech" inscribed in the US Constitution apparently only applies to Americans. Europeans would have to fear being prosecuted at any time on suspicion of espionage. He blamed former CIA Director Mike Pompeo for this development because, as Secretary of State under US President Donald Trump, he had ensured that the outdated Espionage Act was reactivated. Using this law, he was threatened with 105 years in prison and had to plead guilty in order to leave the British prison where he was being held on remand. He blamed the unspecified British establishment, which was cooperating with the USA, for this.
"Journalism is not a crime"
Looking to the present day, Assange was asked what he thought had changed in the 14 years he spent first in the Ecuadorian embassy and then in Belmarsh prison. "I see more secrecy and more repression, but also more self-censorship among journalists, which is bad. Journalism is not a crime." He received prolonged applause for this. Assange referred several times to the situation in Gaza, where news about what is happening on the ground is suppressed. Here he drew a comparison with a video from the Iraq war in 2007, which was blocked by the US military and published by Wikileaks in 2010 under the title "Collateral Murder".
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Towards the end of the hearing, the visibly exhausted Australian thanked all the democratic groups in the parliamentary assembly for their fight for human rights and their commitment to freedom of expression. He called on them to "continue the fight". When the report on his trial and the impact on human rights is presented and discussed in the parliamentary assembly, Assange will be present as a spectator in the gallery.
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