After Julian Assange was released by a court on the remote U.S. Pacific territory of Saipan on Wednesday, ending a 14-year legal battle, the WikiLeaks founder's lawyer first thanked Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for making the outcome possi… | By diplomaticbriefing on June 27, 2024 | After Julian Assange was released by a court on the remote U.S. Pacific territory of Saipan on Wednesday, ending a 14-year legal battle, the WikiLeaks founder's lawyer first thanked Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for making the outcome possible. Jennifer Robinson, the Australian attorney of Assange, said diplomacy and intense lobbying with the highest authorities in the U.S. played a big role in Assange walking free, after spending five years in a high-security British prison and seven years holed up in the Ecuadorean embassy in London. "At every opportunity, and when Australian officials were making outreach to the U.S., they knew that they were acting with the full authority of the prime minister of Australia," Robinson told reporters outside the courtroom in Saipan. Albanese has claimed Assange's release as a win for the country, which leveraged its security ties with Washington and London to strengthen its case to resolve the plight of an Australian citizen. "This work has been complex and it has been considered. This is what standing up for Australians around the world looks like," Albanese, leader of a centre-left Labor government, told parliament on Wednesday. Assange, who landed in Australia on Wednesday evening, had faced a maximum jail sentence of 175 years after being charged with 17 counts of breaching the U.S. Espionage Act and a hacking-related charge. Under a deal revealed on Tuesday, he pled guilty to a single charge of espionage and walked free. The deal gained momentum as the U.S. faced growing challenges in the UK over the legality of extraditing Assange, while Australian lawmakers and diplomats raised the heat in Washington and London. A decade ago under a conservative government, there was little political will in Canberra to back Assange's case. But things changed in 2023 when dozens of lawmakers across the political spectrum swung in behind the campaign to bring him home, his father, John Shipton, told Reuters. Shipton told Reuters the Australian government had been "nothing short of magnificent" and praised former prime minister Kevin Rudd and former defence minister Stephen Smith, Australia's top envoys to the U.S. and Britain. When Labor won power in May 2022, Assange finally had state diplomatic support behind him. Later that year Albanese called for his release on the floor of the House of Representatives, the first time a Prime Minister had mentioned Assange in parliament since 2012. "Enough is enough, it is time for this matter to be brought to a conclusion," he said. (https://neuters.de/world/enough-is-enough-how-australias-quiet-diplomacy-led-julian-assange-freedom-2024-06-26/) Behind the scenes, Albanese and senior cabinet colleagues including Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Attorney General Dreyfus used visits to the U.S. to lobby their counterparts, according to the government official. The appointment of Smith and Rudd to the top diplomatic jobs in London and Washington in late 2022 added two more sympathetic lobbyists for Assange's cause. Smith visited Assange in Belmarsh prison in April 2023, the first such visit by Australia's top U.K. diplomat since he was imprisoned four years earlier. As recently as last July, U.S. officials appeared determined to prosecute Assange. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that month Australia needed to understand U.S. concerns. However, a month later, U.S. Ambassador to Australia Caroline Kennedy said a deal was possible. After the cross-party delegation of Australian politicians travelled to Washington in September to speak to Republican and Democrat lawmakers about the Assange case, the Biden administration appeared to be softening its response. Joe Biden said in April, "We are considering it," when asked by media about Australia's request to end Assange's prosecution. | | | | You can also reply to this email to leave a comment. | | | | |
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