WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has returned to Australia with a clenched-fist salute in emotional scenes in Canberra on Wednesday night, as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese vowed to always stand up for citizens in trouble overseas.
Albanese said at a press conference at 8pm, just as Assange disembarked from a chartered flight, that the release of Assange had taken years of diplomatic effort and showed the government was “not in a contest of machismo” because it worked quietly behind the scenes rather than talking in public about its negotiations with the US.
Assange’s family were due to speak at the East Hotel in Canberra after 9pm Wednesday night, but the man of the hour was not expected to make an appearance. Opposition Leader Peter Dutton remained silent in question time on Wednesday when Albanese spoke about Assange, while other Coalition frontbenchers have criticised the WikiLeaks founder this week and said his work had undermined the US and its allies.
Assange’s father said late on Wednesday the family would seek a pardon from US president Joe Biden over the conviction recorded against Assange.At his Mariana Islands plea, Judge Ramona Manglona said it was important to recognise that Assange had been jailed for 62 months in a London prison, roughly equivalent to the time US Army whistleblower Chelsea Manning served for disclosing classified information about the Iraq and Afghanistan wars to WikiLeaks.
Assange’s London-based lawyer Jennifer Robinson said the conviction set a “dangerous precedent that should be of concern to journalists everywhere”.
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