{"id":109242,"date":"2024-10-01T20:26:45","date_gmt":"2024-10-01T13:26:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=109242"},"modified":"2024-10-01T20:26:45","modified_gmt":"2024-10-01T13:26:45","slug":"wikileaks-julian-assange-says-he-pleaded-guilty-to-journalism-in-order-to-be-freed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=109242","title":{"rendered":"WikiLeaks&#8217; Julian Assange says he pleaded &#8216;guilty to journalism&#8217; in order to be freed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"fluid\"\r\n     data-ad-layout-key=\"-fb+5w+4e-db+86\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"7910942971\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>STRASBOURG, France (AP) \u2014 WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said Tuesday that he was freed after years of incarceration because he \u201cpled guilty to journalism.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In his first public remarks since he was released from prison in June, Assange gave evidence of the impact of his detention and conviction to the legal affairs and human rights committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France. The Parliamentary Assembly includes lawmakers from 46 European countries. <\/p>\n<p>A group of supporters, holding a banner that said \u201cThank you, Julian\u201d greeted Assange as he stepped out of a van smiling and raising his fist in defiance along with his wife, Stella, and WikiLeaks editor-in-chief, Kristinn Hrafnsson. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cAssange is free! We are here. The world is with you,\u201d one supporter shouted before Assange entered the Council of Europe building early Tuesday. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am not free today because the system worked,\u201d Assange said. \u201cI am free today after years of incarceration because I pled guilty to journalism.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>He added: \u201cI pled guilty to seeking information from a source. I pled guilty to obtaining information from a source. And I pled guilty to informing the public what that information was.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Assange was released in June after five years in a British prison after he <span class=\"LinkEnhancement\"><a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/assange-justice-department-plea-wikileaks-saipan-australia-00eb380879ff636cc9b916f82f82ed40\">pleaded guilty<\/a><\/span> to obtaining and publishing U.S. military secrets in <span class=\"LinkEnhancement\"><a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/assange-plea-deal-wikileaks-justice-department-d329ba4614dbfa77b5eb968d07fd9bd0\">a deal with Justice Department prosecutors<\/a><\/span> that concluded a drawn-out legal saga. Prior to his time in prison, he had spent seven years in self-imposed exile in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he claimed asylum on the grounds of political persecution. <\/p>\n<p>The transition from years in a maximum security prison to addressing the European parliamentarians has been a \u201cprofound and a surreal shift,\u201d Assange said as he detailed the experience of isolation in a small cell.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt strips away one\u2019s sense of self, leaving only the raw essence of existence,\u201d he said, his voice cracking while he offered an apology for his \u201cfaltering words\u201d and an \u201cunpolished presentation.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m not yet fully equipped to speak about what I have endured \u2014 the relentless struggle to stay alive, both physically and mentally,\u201d Assange said. <\/p>\n<p>The Australian internet publisher was accused of receiving and publishing hundreds of thousands of war logs and diplomatic cables that included details of U.S. military wrongdoing in Iraq and Afghanistan. His activities were celebrated by press freedom advocates, who heralded his role in bringing to light military conduct that might otherwise have been concealed.<\/p>\n<p>Among the files published by WikiLeaks was a video of a 2007 Apache helicopter attack by American forces in Baghdad that killed 11 people, including two Reuters journalists.<\/p>\n<p>Critics say his conduct put American national security and innocent lives \u2014 such as people who provided information to U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan \u2014 at risk, and strayed far beyond the bounds of traditional journalism duties.<\/p>\n<p>The yearslong case ended with Assange entering his plea in a <span class=\"LinkEnhancement\"><a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/assange-wikileaks-saipan-court-marianas-surge-066ab4e64d9fa063ffd20c71964a2662\">U.S. district court<\/a><\/span> on the Northern Mariana Islands, an American commonwealth in the Pacific. <\/p>\n<p>Assange pleaded guilty to an Espionage Act charge of conspiring to unlawfully obtain and disseminate classified national defense information. A judge sentenced him to the five years he had already spent behind bars in the U.K. fighting <span class=\"LinkEnhancement\"><a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/julian-assange-wikileaks-extradition-timeline-77a759d7408ebeb24d026a7c2c00feb3\">extradition<\/a><\/span> to the United States.<\/p>\n<p>Assange returned to Australia a free man in late June. At the time his wife, Stella, said he needed time to recuperate before speaking publicly. <\/p>\n<p>His appearance on Tuesday comes after the Council of Europe\u2019s Parliamentary Assembly published a report on Assange\u2019s detention in a high-security U.K. prison for five years. <\/p>\n<p>The assembly\u2019s human rights committee said Assange qualified as a political prisoner and issued a draft resolution expressing deep concern at his harsh treatment. <\/p>\n<p>\u2014<\/p>\n<p>Surk reported from Nice, France, and Hui reported from London.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script>\n  window.fbAsyncInit = function() {\n      FB.init({\n              appId : '870613919693099',\n          xfbml : true,\n          version : 'v2.9'\n      });\n  };\n  (function(d, s, id){\n     var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];\n     if (d.getElementById(id)) {return;}\n     js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;\n     js.src = \"https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/sdk.js\";\n     fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);\n   }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));\n<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"fluid\"\r\n     data-ad-layout-key=\"-fb+5w+4e-db+86\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"7910942971\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><div data-type=\"_mgwidget\" data-widget-id=\"1660802\">\r\n<\/div>\r\n<script>(function(w,q){w[q]=w[q]||[];w[q].push([\"_mgc.load\"])})(window,\"_mgq\");\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/julian-assange-statement-council-europe-5373cfb854474deba0e5799b23cb8d2e\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>STRASBOURG, France (AP) \u2014 WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said Tuesday that he was freed after years of incarceration because he \u201cpled guilty to journalism.\u201d In his first public remarks since &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=109242\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-109242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=109242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109242\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=109242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=109242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=109242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}