Julian Assange, WikiLeaks founder and former editor-in-chief, will appear before court in Saipan tomorrow to allegedly plead guilty to a felony charge. After this, he will be returning home to Australia, according to WikiLeaks.
But how do Australia’s governing politicians – and politicians further abroad – feel about Assange coming ‘home’?
What are politicians saying?
US spokespeople have differed wildly in their takes on Assange’s release, from being staunchly against it to welcoming it with open arms.
“I am overjoyed,” said American independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr in a tweet today.
The bad news is that [Assange] had to plead guilty to conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defense info. Which means the US security state has succeeded in criminalizing journalism.
“He should be pardoned immediately because he committed no crime. He simply exposed the barbaric crimes of the American empire,” tweeted American intellectual and philosopher Cornel West earlier.
Former US vice president Mike Pence sees it differently
“Julian Assange endangered the lives of our troops in a time of war and should have been prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. The Biden administration’s plea deal with Assange is a miscarriage of justice” Pence said on X today.
“There should be no plea deals to avoid prison for anyone that endangers the security of our military or the national security of the United States,” he added.
Sentiment in Australia
Australia’s MPs have been vocal on their views of the news.
Australian senator David Shoebridge said earlier today on the Greens website that:
Julian Assange should never have been charged with espionage in the first place or had to make this deal. Assange has spent years in jail for the crime of showing the world the horrors of the US war in Iraq and the complicity of governments like Australia and that is why he has been punished.”
“We should never forget why Julian was targeted by the US for over a decade: for telling an awful, inconvenient truth about war crimes,” added fellow Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson in the same media release.
Barnaby Joyce, Australian MP of the Nationals party, told Sky News Australia this morning, in Australian time, that he welcomed the news, saying that this issue was not about Assange but rather about “extraterritoriality” and about Australian legislation.
“At the very start we have been incredibly careful because this process does look very encouraging but it’s not complete… Nobody wants to put a fly in the ointment. In a 1,500-metre race, you don’t stop and start waving at the crowd,” he said.
“Between the United States of America and Australia, we have bigger fish to fry, we need to clear the decks of this issue… Assange didn’t steal anything,” Joyce added.
Assange’s health is “fragile” with “heart problems”
MP of the Australian Labour Party Julian Hill said that Assange should not be judged for wanting to “get the hell out of there and come home” as “his health is fragile”.
Kennedy Jr added in his own tweet that “Julian had to take this. He has heart problems and he would have died in prison.”
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