A victory marred by compromise
Assange's legal Odyssey ends

ANALYTICS  27 June 2024 - 17:49

It was a sensation to learn that Julian Assange, the renowned political prisoner from the West, a journalist has been offered a chance at freedom. As part of a court agreement, the founder of WikiLeaks, which had for years disclosed confidential materials suppressed by political and military circles in the EU and the US, will be handed over to US authorities.

He is expected to plead guilty to espionage and face several years in prison, though with credit for time served in pre-trial detention. The trial is set to occur in the Mariana Islands, under US administration since World War II.

The choice of the court venue, as isolated as possible from the public and the media, cannot but arouse suspicion and fear, but the journalist's lawyers and the public are optimistic, believing that the next stop in the WikiLeaks founder's odyssey will be his native Australia, not the bottom of the Mariana Trench.

Julian Assange's persecution has been going on for more than 15 years. The first charges against him were brought by Swedish feminists who accused the journalist of refusing to use protection during intimate relations. Assange was forced to leave Sweden, and it gradually became clear that the US authorities were behind his accusers.

The Ecuadorian embassy in London granted Assange asylum, but a few years later the Latin American republic changed its government, and the dissident was expelled from the diplomatic mission directly into the hands of the British police waiting for him. Julian Assange spent about 5 years in the UK prison Belmarsh, and the conditions of his detention caused serious concern to human rights activists.

According to information leaked to the press, in recent years, the health of the prisoner of the British monarchy has seriously deteriorated.

The Julian Assange case has attracted enormous international attention and has become one of the most striking examples of hypocrisy and double standards on the part of the Western establishment.

In 2020, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev sharply remarked to a BBC journalist: "In order to accuse me saying that Armenians will not have free media here, let’s talk about Assange. How many years he spent in Ecuadorian embassy and for what? And where is he now? For journalistic activity you kept that person hostage actually killing him morally and physically. You did it, not us. And now he is in prison. So you have no moral right to talk about free media when you do these things".

However, a spoonful of tar has been added to the barrel of honey around the release of Julian Assange. It is about Assange's confession of guilt in the espionage charges brought against him. As we see, confession is the "queen of evidence" not only in the notorious Moscow trials of 1937.

By espionage, the US authorities meant exposing the dark secrets of the US: killing civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan, financing the opposition in Belarus, information on prisoners in the Guantanamo Bay camp. It should be added that, according to media reports, as part of the court deal, materials about war crimes of the US army should be removed from the WikiLeaks website as "obtained by espionage.”

Robert Kennedy Jr. said: "Julian Assange has made a plea bargain and will go free! I am overjoyed. He is the hero of a generation. The bad news is that he had to plead guilty to conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defence information. This means that the state has succeeded in criminalizing journalism and extending its jurisdiction to non-citizens around the world. Julian had to accept that. He had heart problems and would have died in prison. But the security state has set a terrible precedent and dealt a big blow to press freedom.”

According to observers, the court deal to release Assange is linked to the upcoming US presidential election. The incumbent President Joe Biden not only has serious health problems, but is heavily criticized by progressive circles because of the events in the Middle East. By releasing the Australian, the current White House host will earn additional points in the eyes of supporters of the left wing of the Democratic Party.

Former UK Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn called Assange's stay in prison a "grotesque miscarriage of justice." "Never stop fighting for the truth. Never give up hope. Never, never give up," the politician wrote on social media.

The release of the journalist was welcomed by the presidents of Colombia Gustavo Petro and Mexico Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Former Ecuadorian leader Lenin Moreno, who extradited Assange to British authorities in 2019, also joined the chorus of congratulations.

Jodie Ginsberg, chief executive officer of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), said that "Julian Assange faced a prosecution with serious consequences for journalists and press freedom around the world."

The Australian authorities also contributed to Assange's release. The Prime Minister of the country personally discussed Assange's case with US President Joe Biden and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and on the release of the WikiLeaks founder remarked that "regardless of what people think of Mr. Assange and his activities, the case has dragged on too long. His continued incarceration will accomplish nothing and we want him to return home to Australia."

But even outside the prison walls, his future fate is a matter of concern. It is worth recalling that Australia is part of the Western bloc, and the King of England, who held the dissident in Belmarsh prison, is also the head of the Australian state. It is possible that after some time Assange will be subjected to new persecution and will be imprisoned for a second time. Already after leaving prison, Assange was denied a flight home on a regular commercial flight - he was forced to pay 500 thousand dollars for a special board. This is reminiscent of the old German practice, when relatives of those sentenced to death were billed for the rope and "services" of the executioner.

The fate of Assange's associate, Bradley/Chelsea Manning, who gave WikiLeaks a significant number of classified documents, including videos of the shooting of Iraqi civilians by the US military, is illustrative. For this, he was sentenced to 35 years in prison and was only pardoned by President Barack Obama in 2017. However, in 2019, Manning, who had already changed gender by then, was taken back into custody for refusing to testify against Assange.

A number of US politicians have already voiced their displeasure over the prison deal. Former Vice President Michael Pence called the US Justice Department's actions a miscarriage of justice and a shameful act against "the service and sacrifice of the men and women of our armed forces and their families."

“Julian Assange endangered the lives of our military personnel during a time of war and should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. There should be no plea bargains to avoid prison for those who threaten the safety of our armed forces or the national security of the United States."

This suggests that if Donald Trump wins the next US election, the case against Julian Assange could be reopened.

The views and opinions expressed by guest columnists in their op-eds may differ from and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff.

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