Julian Assange is an Australian journalist and publicist who through WikiLeaks in 2010 reported on war crimes committed by the United States in 2007. He was arrested for these reports in London in 2019, fighting extradition since. On June 25 2024 it was announced Assange had boarded a plane to the Northern Mariana Islands — a US commonwealth about 3,500 miles north of Sydney, Australia. After a plea deal signed there, he was released and returned home to Australia a free man.

Julian Assange

update woensdag 26 juni 6 pm

Persconferentie in Australie

update woensdag 26 juni, 9 am

Stella Assange: “You stand before me to be sentenced in this criminal action,” Judge Manglona says. “I would note the following: Timing matters. If this case was brought before me some time near 2012, without the benefit of what I know now, that you served a period of imprisonment ... in apparently one of the harshest facilities in the United Kingdom.

“There’s another significant fact – the government has indicated there is no personal victim here. That tells me the dissemination of this information did not result in any known physical injury. “These two facts are very relevant. I would say if this was still unknown and She also has to consider the case and seven year imprisonment of Chelsea Manning.

It appears your 62 months ... was fair and reasonable and proportionate to Ms Manning’s actual prison time. She also acknowledges Assange’s “14-year ordeal”. “it appears this case ends with me here in Saipan”

“With this pronouncement it appears you will be able to walk out of this courtroom a free man. I hope there will be some peace restored”

“You will be able to walk out of this courtroom a free man,” Judge said to Assange.

update dinsdag 25 juni, 2pm

Citing an unnamed senior Thai official, AFP reported the chartered jet would get refueled and resupplied during the stopover and Assange will leave for the island of Saipan at 9 p.m. local time. Saipan is the capital of the Northern Mariana Islands—a U.S. territory located in the Western Pacific around 135 miles northeast of Guam. Assange will appear before a U.S. Federal Court in Saipan at 9 a.m. local time on Wednesday, where he will enter a guilty plea on one count of conspiring to obtain and disclose classified U.S. national defense documents. U.S. Federal Judge Ramona V. Manglona will oversee Assange’s Wednesday hearing, the Saipan Tribune reported.

update dinsdag 25 juni, 9am

We are attaching the electronically signed felony Information in the above-captioned matter and respectfully request that, as soon as possible, the clerk docket this letter and Information in order to provide public notice of the Rule 11 hearing scheduled before Your Honor in Saipan for Wednesday, June 26, 2024 at 9am, during which we anticipate that the defendant will plead guilty to the charge in the Information of

conspiring to unlawfully obtain and disseminate classified information relating to the national defense of the United States, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 793(g), and be sentenced by the Court for that offense. We appreciate the Court accommodating these plea and sentencing proceedings on a single day at the joint request of the parties, in light of the defendant’s opposition to traveling to the continental United States to enter his guilty plea and the proximity of this federal U.S. District Court to the defendant’s country of citizenship, Australia, to which we expect he will return at the conclusion of the proceedings.

Wikileaks statement 25 juni 2024

JULIAN ASSANGE IS FREE Julian Assange is free. He left Belmarsh maximum security prison on the morning of 24 June, after having spent 1901 days there. He was granted bail by the High Court in London and was released at Stansted airport during the afternoon, where he boarded a plane and departed the UK. This is the result of a global campaign that spanned grass-roots organisers, press freedom campaigners, legislators and leaders from across the political spectrum, all the way to the United Nations. This created the space for a long period of negotiations with the US Department of Justice, leading to a deal that has not yet been formally finalised. We will provide more information as soon as possible. After more than five years in a 2x3 metre cell, isolated 23 hours a day, he will soon reunite with his wife Stella Assange, and their children, who have only known their father from behind bars. WikiLeaks published groundbreaking stories of government corruption and human rights abuses, holding the powerful accountable for their actions. As editor-in-chief, Julian paid severely for these principles, and for the people's right to know. As he returns to Australia, we thank all who stood by us, fought for us, and remained utterly committed in the fight for his freedom. Julian's freedom is our freedom. [More details to follow]

• interviews: youtube playlist (feb 2010), Twitter thread (feb 2020)

• Dutch written report, English written report (feb 2020)

• drawings - artwork by Daniel Fooks

I was guest to the Anonymous Bites Back show on day two of the trial.
Here’s the episode

in English

Julian Assange richtte in 2006 Wikileaks op dat daarna vanaf 2010 de aandacht vestigde op oa. misdaden van de Verenigde Staten in de oorlogen in Afghanistan, Irak en Syrië en in de Amerikaanse gevangenis Guantanamo Bay. Later leerden we dat Wikileaks die info van klokkenluider Chelsea Manning had. Manning werd ervoor veroordeeld en zat in de gevangenis van 2012 tot 2017, toen president Obama haar vlak voor zijn aftreden vrij liet.

Vanaf 2012 stond Assange onder huisarrest in Londen vanwege een onderzoek in Zweden waarvoor mogelijk zijn uitlevering zou worden gevraagd. Assange vertrouwde het niet. Hij zocht en kreeg politiek asiel van Ecuador in de ambassade in Londen. Hij zat in die Ambassade van 2012 tot 11 april 2019. Ecuador leverde hem op die dag over aan Groot Brittanië, waar hij sindsdien in de gevangenis zit in afwachting van een proces om uitlevering aan de Verenigde Staten. Toen Assange in de gevangenis zat, kwam er een uitleveringsverzoek vanuit de VS en stopte Zweden met de uitleveringszaak die ze al die jaren had aangehouden.

Assange heeft op dat moment negen jaar lang in Londen vastgezeten, waarvan zeven in de beperking van de ambassade van Ecuador. De Verenigde Naties noemen dat ‘arbitrary detention’. Assange koos daarvoor omdat hij wist dat -eenmaal aan Zweden uitgeleverd- Zweden hem aan de VS zou uitleveren. Eind 2018 werd duidelijk dat Assange gelijk had, toen naar buiten kwam dat in de VS een geheime ‘sealed indictment’ tegen hem bestond.

In die tijd was Italiaanse onderzoeksjournalist Stefania Maurizi met Openbaarheid van Bestuur (FOIA) onderzoeken en rechtszaken bezig om uit te zoeken wat er nu precies achter de schermen tussen die landen allemaal gebeurt. In deze Potkaars vertelt ze over haar bevindingen. De openbaar aanklager in Engeland (Crown Prosecution Service) heeft bijvoorbeeld cruciale e-mails gewist van hun contacten met de Zweden.

Je kon wel voelen dat er wat zat aan te komen, toen Chelsea Manning eind januari 2019 werd opgeroepen opnieuw te getuigen over Wikileaks/Julian Assange, ditmaal voor een geheime rechtbank. Ze werkte er niet aan mee en werd voor minachting van het hof in maart 2019 gevangen genomen. In deze Potkaars vertelt professor in internationaal recht en mensenrechten expert Alfred de Zayas over Chelsea Manning en het grand jury system van de VS. Hij zegt: ‘what we have here is a classical case of law-fare ... a whistleblower who already did several years and had her sentence commuted was locked up again for refusing to testify against a publisher and publishing organisation’.

Op 11 april 2019 werd Julian Assange in de Ecuadoraanse ambassade gearresteerd van Londen gearresteerd. De wereld zag hoe een schijnbaar oude man met een verwilderde baard over straat werd gesleept en in een busje gestopt. Ik sprak in deze Potkaars met klokkenluider advocaat Naomi Colvin over wat er gebeurd was die dag en de implicaties zoals zij die zag.

Er gingen al jaren vreemde verhalen rond over Assange. Hij zou in zweden gezocht worden voor verkrachting en in de ambassade poep op de muren hebben gesmeerd. Hij zou een narcist zijn en meer van zulke dingen. Het maakte dat de Verenigde Naties speciale rapporteur voor Martelen, Nils Melzer, in eerste instantie terughoudend reageerde op verzoeken vanuit de verdediging van Assange om te beoordelen of Assange werd gemarteld. Melzer onderzoekt hem daarna met een team van specialisten en rapporteert dat Julian Assange is gemarteld door oa. een langdurige en vooropgezette campagne van laster en intimidatie door zowel de UK, US, Zweden en Ecuador.

In deze Potkaars legt Melzer in detail uit wat er in Zweden nu precies was voorgevallen, dat die aanklacht inderdaad kant noch wal raakte en waarom hij namens de Verenigde Naties concludeert dat Assange wordt gemarteld. Hij legt uit wat de reactie daarop was vanuit de landen die hij beschuldigt. Melzer: 'to me this is a real test for these countries, for the West. As to whether they take the legacy of the second world war and the human rights treaties that they have established and that guarantee fair trial, that guarantee freedom of the press, that guarantee the prohibition of torturable treatment. They established the United Nations and mandated people like me to observe these rights. If they don’t take these United Nations reports seriously, then it really puts into question the validity of the commitment of these states to human rights’.

In Nederland is in Amsterdam in ‘De Balie’ een bijeenkomst met de naam ‘de Erfenis van Assange’. Ik ben er bij om te zien hoe hier over Assange wordt gesproken. Benadrukt werd hoe je Assange niet als journalist zou moeten zien en ook niet als klokkenluider en hoe Assange zich niet aan normatieve en juridische kaders zou hebben gehouden. Geen van de sprekers heeft het over martelen, over arbitrary detention, over de bedreiging voor persvrijheid, Assange als publicist of de vrijheid van informatie.

Wat kan je nog doen als de internationale rechtsorde faalt, persvrijheid verdwijnt en als de VS en zelfs landen in de EU een publicist opsluiten en martelen omdat hij vertelde over oorlogsmisdaden? Ik vroeg het aan klokkenluider advocaat Jesselyn Radack in deze Potkaars.

Julian Assange is, nadat hij uit die ambassade was gehaald, tot 50 weken gevangenisstraf veroordeeld omdat hij in 2012 zijn huisarrest overtrad toen hij asiel zocht in de ambassade van Ecuador. Hij wordt sindsdien onder het zwaarste regime dat er is in Engeland -in Belmarsh prison- in isolatie gehouden. Hij mag nauwelijks bezoek ontvangen en heeft er vrijwel geen toegang tot zijn advocaten. Zijn gezondheid gaat hard achteruit en hij wordt gedrogeerd. Op 13 januari 2020 was er een zitting waarin de uitleveringsrechtszaak aan de VS wordt voorbereid. Journalist Tareq Haddad was daarbij. In deze Potkaars doet hij verslag van die zitting.

Ik zette chronologisch op een rijtje wat er was gebeurd tussen 2006 en 2020. Dat kan je hier teruglezen.

Eind februari 2020 is de uitleveringrechtszaak in de UK. Ik ging daar naar toe. In deze column leg ik uit waarom, dit is mijn verslag.

De uitleveringsrechtszaak Van Julian Assange komt begin 2024 tot haar conclusie. In blckbx leg ik uit de situatie rond het laatste verzoek beroep tegen uitlevering te mogen aantekenen. Djamila le Pair was voor Potkaars in Londen en maakte dit verslag.

Julian Assange

Julian Assange founded Wikileaks in 2006 and as of 2010 published about crimes committed by the United States in the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria and in the American prison Guantanamo Bay. Later we learned that Wikileaks had gotten their info from whistleblower Chelsea Manning. Manning was convicted and was in prison from 2012 to 2017, until her release by President Obama just before he left office.

As of 2012 Assange was under house arrest in London because of an investigation in Sweden that could lead to a request for extradition. Assange didn't trust it. He sought and got political asylum from Ecuador in their Embassy in London. He was in that Embassy between 2012 and April 11th, 2019 when Ecuador handed him over to British Police. He’s been in prison since, pending an extradition trial to the United States. Only after Assange was taken into custody, was the extradition request made by the US. Sweden then dropped the extradition case they had retained all those years.

So prior to his arrest Assange had been detained in London for nine years, seven of which in the restriction of Ecuador's embassy. The United Nations labelled it "arbitrary detention". Assange knew or felt that -once extradited to Sweden - Sweden would in all likelihood extradite him to the US. At the end of 2018, it became clear that Assange had been right to suspect so, when evidence showed there had been a secret 'sealed indictment' against Assange in the US.

Italian investigative journalist Stefania Maurizi was making freedom of information requests (FOIA) to find out exactly what was happening behind the scenes in those countries. In this Potkaars she talks about her findings. For example, the Prosecutor in England (Crown Prosecution Service) had erased crucial emails from their contacts with the Swedes.

You could feel things were happening when Chelsea Manning was summoned to testify before a secret grand jury on Wikileaks/Julian Assange at the end of January 2019. She choose to not cooperate and was imprisoned for contempt of the court in March 2019. In this Potkaars professor of international law and human rights expert Alfred de Zayas talks about Chelsea Manning and the US grand jury system. He says: 'what we have here is a classical case of law-fare ... a whistleblower who already did several years and had her sentence commuted was locked up again for refusing to testify against a publisher and publishing organisation'.

On April 11th, 2019, Julian Assange was arrested from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. The world saw a seemingly old man with a wild beard being dragged across the street and put in a van. In this Potkaars I talked with whistleblower lawyer Naomi Colvin about what had happened that day and the implications as she saw them.

There had been some weird stories going around on Assange for years. He was alleged to have been wanted by Sweden for rape and was said to have smeared poo on the walls in the embassy. He's supposedly a narcissist and more of such things. Those stories made the United Nations special rapporteur for Torture, Nils Melzer, initially reluctantly to respond to requests made by Assange's defence team to assess whether Assange had been a victim of torture. Melzer then investigates him with a team of specialists and reports that Julian Assange has indeed been tortured by a lengthy and preconceived campaign of defamation and intimidation by both the UK, US, Sweden and Ecuador.

In this Potkaars, Melzer explains in detail exactly what had happened in Sweden. That the charge was not what is was made out to be and he explained why he concludes on behalf of the United Nations that Assange had been tortured. He also goes into the reaction, or lack thereof by the countries he accuses. Melzer: 'to me this is a real test for these countries, for the West. As to whether they take the legacy of the second world war and the human rights treaties that they have established and that guarantee fair trial, that guarantee freedom of the press, that guarantee the prohibition of torturable treatment. They established the United Nations and mandated people like me to observe these rights. If they don't take these United Nations reports seriously, then it really puts into question the validity of the commitment of these states to human rights'.

In the Netherlands in Amsterdam in 'De Balie' there is a meeting called 'the Legacy of Assange'. I'm there too, to see how Assange is being talked about here. The people on stage stressed how you should not see Assange as a journalist, nor as a whistleblower and how Assange would not have adhered to normative and legal frameworks. None of the speakers were talking about torturing, about arbitrary detention, about the threat to press freedom or Assange as a publicist or freedom of information.

What can you do when the international legal order fails, press freedom disappears and the US and even EU countries imprison and torture a publicist because they exposed war crimes? I asked whistleblower lawyer Jesselyn Radack in this Potkaars.

Julian Assange was sentenced to 50 weeks in prison after being removed from that embassy for violating his house arrest in 2012 when he was actually seeking asylum in Ecuador's embassy. He has since been kept in isolation under the toughest of regimes in England -in Belmarsh prison. He is hardly allowed to receive any visitors and has virtually no access to his lawyers. His health is deteriorating and he's supposedly drugged. On January 13, 2020, there was a hearing in which the extradition lawsuit to the US was being prepared. Journalist Tareq Haddad was present, in this Potkaars he reports on that session.

I sumpt up chronologically what had happened between 2006 and 2020. You can read that here..

At the end of February 2020, the extradition lawsuit will be taking place in the UK. In this column I explain why I’m going to be there too.