WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has spoken at his first public appearance since being released from prison in June, saying he pleaded ‘guilty to journalism’.
The 53-year-old described his five years in a UK prison as a “relentless struggle to stay alive.”
Julian Assange’s brother describes what it was like when Julian returned home on this exclusive with The Briefing:
I am not free today because the system worked. I am free today after years of incarceration because I pled guilty to journalism. I pled guilty to seeking information from a source. I pled guilty to obtaining information from a source. And I plead guilty to informing the public what that information was.
In Strasbourg, France, Assange delivered this speech to Europe’s leading human rights organisation, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).
Assange is giving evidence on his conviction and detention after a PACE report concluded he was a political prisoner. PACE called for an inquiry into whether he was subject to “inhumane treatment.”
“Isolation has taken its toll which I am trying to unwind,” Assange added, “Isolation has taken its toll which I am trying to unwind.”
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