‘Nothing to be ashamed of’: Lawyers defiant as Assange heads to Australia

Assange pleaded guilty to conspiring to unlawfully obtain and disseminate US military secrets.Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he was looking forward to Assange’s return to Australia.Julian Assange’s lawyers have struck a defiant tone after the WikiLeaks founder pleaded guilty to a felony charge, insisting their client should never have been accused of a crime and warning his conviction has put journalists around the world at risk of imprisonment for doing their jobs.

Assange is scheduled to arrive in Canberra on Wednesday night, where he will be greeted by father John Shipton and wife Stella Assange, and is expected to appear with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.Stella Assange told the BBC that her husband “will have to pay the Australian government $500,000 back for the chartered flights” that brought him from London to Canberra via Bangkok and Saipan.

Noting there was “no personal victim here” as a result of the information disclosed by WikiLeaks, Manglona said: “It appears that your 62 months in prison is very reasonable and proportionate to Ms Manning’s actual prison time.” Assange’s London-based lawyer Jennifer Robinson said Wednesday was “a historic day”, one that “brings to an end a case which has been recognised as the greatest threat to the First Amendment in the 21st century”.

“This is not something that has happened in the last 24 hours, this is something that has been considered, patient, worked through and in a calibrated way which is how … Australia conducts itself,” he said.AP“Yes, he received classified information from Chelsea Manning and he published that information,” Pollock said. “That should not be a crime.”

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