WikiLeaks founder says he was freed because he ‘pled guilty to journalism’

By Merve Berker

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Tuesday said that he was freed after years of incarceration because he “pled guilty to journalism.”

Addressing the European Parliament committee on his detention and conviction, Assange said: "The fundamental issue is simple: Journalists should not be prosecuted for doing their jobs.”

“Journalism is not a crime; it is a pillar of a free and informed society," he added.

According to him, the CIA “drew up plans to kidnap and to assassinate me within the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and authorized going after my European colleagues, subjecting us to theft, hacking attacks and the planting of false information.”

“My wife and my infant son were also targeted,” he said, adding that instructions were given to “obtain DNA” from his “6-month-old son’s nappy.”

Assange emphasized how “aggressive” the CIA acted at that time against him.

“This assembly is no stranger to the extraterritorial abuses by the CIA,” he stressed, pointing to “secret detention centers” and “unlawful renditions on European soil.”

“In February this year, the alleged source of some of our CIA revelations, former CIA officer Joshua Schulte, was sentenced to 40 years in prison under conditions of extreme isolation,” Assange said, adding: “His windows are blacked out, and a white noise machine plays 24 hours a day over his door so that he cannot even shout through it.”

According to the WikiLeaks founder, such conditions are “more severe than those found in Guantanamo Bay.”

Assange also highlighted the absence of adequate protections against “transnational repression,” which he added leaves Europe “vulnerable” to foreign powers exploiting its “mutual legal assistance” and extradition agreements.

He said CIA Director Mike Pompeo succeeded in securing a US government warrant for his extradition, which the UK kept secret for two years while the US and Ecuador shaped the conditions for his arrest.

Washington, according to him, asserted a “dangerous new global legal position. Only US citizens have free speech rights. Europeans and other nationalities do not have free speech rights, but the US claims its Espionage Act still applies to them, regardless of where they are. So Europeans in Europe must obey US secrecy law with no defenses at all.”

If Europe values free speech and publishing, it must act to prevent future transnational repression, he suggested.

- Journalists in Gaza, Ukraine

Furthermore, in a Q&A session, Assange said that the only change he observed after getting free was not “the spooky sound of electric cars.”

The society itself also changed, he stressed. “Every day, there are live stream horrors from the war in Ukraine and the war in Gaza.”

“Hundreds of journalists have been killed in Gaza and Ukraine combined,” he said, adding: “The impunity seems to mount and it’s still uncertain what we can do about it.”

The WikiLeaks founder also talked about the importance of political asylum.

Political asylum is “an absolutely essential relief valve” that allows individuals to escape persecution, enabling journalists to continue reporting from exile, he said.

It also pressures states to improve their behavior, as restricting asylum and employing transnational repression can lead to worsening conditions for those unable to leave, Assange added.