The founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, was released this Tuesday after concluding an agreement with the United States Department of Justice, in which he pleaded guilty to violating that country’s Espionage Act for his role in obtaining and publishing more than 200,000 cables in 2010 from American diplomacy. The agreement states that Washington considers that Assange, 52, has already served the sentence that is the five years he spent in prison in the United Kingdom on charges of espionage. Before that, he had lived as a refugee in the Ecuadorian embassy in London for the next seven years. These are the milestones that have marked one of the most important judicial processes in the universal defense of press freedom of this century.
Australian Julian Assange, who was 35 at the time, founded WikiLeaks with other activists, a multinational nonprofit media organization that defines itself as “specialists in the analysis and publication of large data sets of censored or restricted official materials on matters of war, espionage and corruption,” according to its website. Since its creation, it has disclosed more than 10 million documents.
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2010 is the peak year of WikiLeaks leaks. In April, Assange’s website published a video in which US soldiers are seen shooting two Reuters agency journalists in Baghdad from a helicopter. In just 72 hours, the video spread around the world and was viewed more than four million times on YouTube. Between July and October, the organization made public thousands of documents related to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, revealing, among other things, corruption in the Western-backed Afghan government and more deaths than previously reported in the conflict.
But it was in November of that year that WikiLeaks leaked to five international newspapers –Guardian, the new York Times, Le Monde, Der Spiegel and EL PAÍS – over 200,000 diplomatic cables from the US State Department and the world diplomacy it shakes up. CablegateAs it was named one of the biggest document leaks in history, it reveals the management of US foreign policy, such as the changes in relations with China and North Korea and the order by Washington to spy on the Secretary-General of the United Nations, then Ban Ki-moon.
In parallel with the publication of the documents, the Swedish prosecutor’s office issues an arrest warrant against Assange, who has been accused in that country of rape by one woman and abuse by another. The WikiLeaks co-founder denies the charges. The second case is being archived due to the statute of limitations, but Swedish authorities continue to investigate the rape until Assange himself surrenders to police in London. A court granted him conditional release on bail.
The Ecuadorian embassy in London has granted political asylum to Assange after a court approved his extradition to Sweden over the alleged rape case. A British judge ordered his arrest for violating parole when he took refuge in the embassy. Police have set up a 24-hour guard to arrest him if he goes outside.
While Assange is taking refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy, Chelsea Manning, a former US Army soldier and main source for WikiLeaks’ leaks, is there. CablegateShe was sentenced to 35 years in prison for violating the Espionage Act. A few months after the verdict, Manning sought a pardon from then-US President Barack Obama, justifying her actions on the basis of her “sense of duty to others.” Obama commuted her sentence in 2017.
WikiLeaks makes public what it calls “the largest leak of documents in CIA history”, revealing that the agency allegedly uses a method of cyber espionage through the microphones of computers, phones and televisions to spy on users.
Assange celebrated five years as a refugee in the Ecuadorian embassy. In the month of December he is scheduled to leave the facilities due to a secret plan with which he will obtain Ecuadorian nationality and a diplomatic passport to escape to a country in continental Europe through the Eurotunnel. The plan failed in a few days due to the espionage of a Spanish company that provided this information to the CIA, as revealed by an EL PAÍS investigation in 2023.
Meanwhile, the Swedish prosecutor’s office archives the rape investigation and withdraws the international arrest warrant.
Despite the conclusion of the judicial process in Sweden – which was briefly reopened in 2019 – a British court rejected Assange’s appeal and upheld the arrest warrant against him for violating the terms of his conditional release.
In November, an investigator found a sealed court file from the US Justice Department that had been accidentally made public and appeared to indicate that a criminal case existed against Assange. That opens the door for a possible extradition to the United States for the first time if he is arrested by British police.
Ecuador’s then-President Lenin Moreno decides to withdraw Assange’s diplomatic asylum, accusing him of “aggressive behavior”, “making insulting and threatening statements against Ecuador through his partner organization (WikiLeaks)”, and “violating international conventions” by his interference in the internal affairs of other countries. British police enter Ecuadorian embassy facilities and arrest him. Moreno justifies his decision by reaching an agreement with the United Kingdom that Assange will not be extradited to a country where he could face torture or the death penalty.
A month after his arrest, he was sentenced to 50 weeks in prison for jumping parole. The United States made the case against him public and charged him with 18 counts, including espionage and conspiracy with Manning. To hack Pentagon Computers.
A British court rules that Assange cannot be extradited to the United States, where he would face up to 175 years in prison, because of the “high” risk he would commit suicide if that happens. “Mr Assange’s mental health is in such a state that it would be distressing for him to be extradited. The judge argues that given his determination due to his autistic disorders, he would suffer a deterioration that would lead him to commit suicide. Given the decision, the activist’s defense requests his conditional release, but it is denied due to the flight risk.
US lawyers appeal the verdict and, at second instance, the London Court of Appeal reverses the conviction and decides there are sufficient guarantees that Assange will be treated humanely after extradition.
In March 2022, the United Kingdom’s Supreme Court rejected Assange’s appeal and authorized his extradition to the United States in July, with then-British Home Secretary Priti Patel signing the order. The activist’s defense appeals the decision, which remains in the hands of the High Court of England and Wales
The High Court of England and Wales on May 20 blocked Assange’s extradition and allowed him to appeal before British courts, noting that Washington does not provide sufficient guarantees for the WikiLeaks founder to receive a fair trial on US soil. On May 25, 2024, the WikiLeaks founder is released after pleading guilty to one count of violating the US Espionage Act. With this agreement with the State Department, which is to be approved this Wednesday, its long legal ordeal is over. “Julian Assange is free,” WikiLeaks tweeted.
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