Local advocates celebrate Julian Assange’s release

SUPPORTERS of Julian Assange from the Bellarine region are celebrating after the WikiLeaks founder was freed last week after pleading guilty to a single US felony charge.

The outcome was the result of tireless efforts by his lawyers, Barry Pollack and Jennifer Robinson, as well as a diverse group of advocates, including world leaders, politicians, diplomats, friends, family, and grassroots community members.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese posted on X that it was the culmination of careful, patient and determined work.

“It is another example of why mature, calibrated and consistent engagement is the best way to get results in Australia’s national interest,” Mr Albanese stated.

On the Bellarine, Corangamite Labor MP Libby Coker and other advocates celebrated Mr Assange’s freedom.

Reflecting on the outcome, Ms Coker said momentum had been building over the last couple of years.

“The Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister have worked carefully and steadily, with clarity and conviction, in pressing for an end to the incarceration of Julian Assange,” Ms Coker said.

“To all those across our region who have lifted their voice in support of Julian Assange, thank you – you’ve made a difference.”

In 2023, Ms Coker was a key signatory to an extraordinary cross-Parliamentary letter to US President Joe Biden and the US Congress that was published in the Washington Post.

“As Australian Parliamentarians, in support of our colleagues’ delegation to the United States in September 2023, we are resolutely of the view that the prosecution and incarceration of the Australian citizen Julian Assange must end,” the letter read.

“Together with a large and growing number of Australians we believe it is wrong in principle for Mr Assange to be pursued under the Espionage Act (1917), and that it was a political decision to bring the prosecution in the first place.”

“In any case, this matter has dragged on for over a decade and it is wrong for Mr Assange to be further persecuted and denied his liberty when one considers the duration and circumstances of the detention he has already suffered.”

In Australia, supporters of Assange crossed political divides.

Their efforts received a boost when the Albanese government came to power in 2022.

Much of the local advocacy on the Bellarine was spearheaded by a group known as the Independent and Peaceful Australia Network (IPAN).

IPAN arranged for Julian’s father, John Shipton, to speak in Geelong earlier this year about the plight of his son. He said the Prime Minister speaking out created ripples across the globe.

“In politics, words are actions; how you speak and what you address is an action,” Mr Shipton said.

Local advocate Sarah Molnar said Julian’s story highlights why we need a press that has the freedom and protection to report on issues that the public have an interest in.

“Our community has a history of showing deep concern in a range of social justice issues both locally and abroad and a long history in grassroots campaigns,” Ms Molnar said.

On Thursday, the Washington Post reported that after years of efforts to extradite Julian Assange from the UK, the Justice Department faced a critical deadline in April 2024.

U.S. prosecutors, warned that their case was likely to fail, rushed to negotiate a plea deal because they could not meet the UK court’s requirements relating to free speech.

According to an email reviewed by The Washington Post, a Justice Department trial attorney noted, “The urgency here has now reached a critical point. The case will head to appeal and we will lose.”

Assange ultimately pleaded guilty to the single felony charge, allowing him to return to Australia.

As part of the deal, Assange avoided being tried on the US mainland.

This marked the end of an over decade-long ordeal that began dramatically with the publishing of classified documents in 2010 and concluded in a small courtroom on Saipan, a remote island in the Northern Mariana Islands in the Pacific Ocean.