Berliner Boersenzeitung - Julian Assange 'rediscovering life' as free man in Australia

EUR -
AED 4.259901
AFN 80.025133
ALL 97.711411
AMD 445.495328
ANG 2.075662
AOA 1063.520725
ARS 1461.313491
AUD 1.780282
AWG 2.087609
AZN 1.968524
BAM 1.94273
BBD 2.343335
BDT 141.011352
BGN 1.953213
BHD 0.437255
BIF 3293.782618
BMD 1.159783
BND 1.486897
BOB 8.020045
BRL 6.467532
BSD 1.160592
BTN 99.570146
BWP 15.606011
BYN 3.798148
BYR 22731.739193
BZD 2.331217
CAD 1.590764
CDF 3347.132681
CHF 0.930447
CLF 0.029229
CLP 1121.66032
CNY 8.319072
CNH 8.33432
COP 4675.849165
CRC 585.362002
CUC 1.159783
CUP 30.734239
CVE 110.817595
CZK 24.668653
DJF 206.117012
DKK 7.463421
DOP 69.917517
DZD 150.580385
EGP 57.304162
ERN 17.396739
ETB 158.368742
FJD 2.616932
FKP 0.863296
GBP 0.866503
GEL 3.142858
GGP 0.863296
GHS 12.064878
GIP 0.863296
GMD 82.921733
GNF 10039.078744
GTQ 8.907078
GYD 242.715052
HKD 9.104265
HNL 30.560756
HRK 7.536244
HTG 152.384837
HUF 400.562283
IDR 18870.590921
ILS 3.904913
IMP 0.863296
INR 99.731505
IQD 1519.315222
IRR 48855.842821
ISK 142.398459
JEP 0.863296
JMD 185.472243
JOD 0.822297
JPY 172.727006
KES 150.19356
KGS 101.419051
KHR 4662.325592
KMF 492.472652
KPW 1043.831738
KRW 1609.047538
KWD 0.354517
KYD 0.967193
KZT 610.393603
LAK 25010.712255
LBP 103858.532609
LKR 349.419297
LRD 233.116082
LSL 20.759492
LTL 3.424537
LVL 0.701541
LYD 6.28025
MAD 10.50937
MDL 19.614047
MGA 5137.837115
MKD 61.148625
MMK 2435.175411
MNT 4157.64358
MOP 9.384168
MRU 46.066614
MUR 52.613556
MVR 17.855316
MWK 2013.96807
MXN 21.887951
MYR 4.919785
MZN 74.179556
NAD 20.762149
NGN 1773.840811
NIO 42.676024
NOK 11.900848
NPR 159.312234
NZD 1.950836
OMR 0.445929
PAB 1.160592
PEN 4.136366
PGK 4.700016
PHP 65.873291
PKR 330.131936
PLN 4.262686
PYG 8986.543412
QAR 4.222308
RON 5.077994
RSD 117.132282
RUB 90.548819
RWF 1663.128265
SAR 4.350035
SBD 9.648881
SCR 16.405624
SDG 696.458003
SEK 11.285259
SGD 1.491185
SHP 0.911407
SLE 26.091309
SLL 24320.066057
SOS 662.811839
SRD 43.450673
STD 24005.158474
SVC 10.154685
SYP 15079.319791
SZL 20.771534
THB 37.819325
TJS 11.095158
TMT 4.070837
TND 3.364819
TOP 2.716321
TRY 46.644026
TTD 7.878994
TWD 34.101118
TZS 3029.935605
UAH 48.532996
UGX 4160.013685
USD 1.159783
UYU 47.301779
UZS 14735.037795
VES 132.428363
VND 30313.818018
VUV 138.597684
WST 3.182696
XAF 651.573567
XAG 0.030685
XAU 0.000348
XCD 3.134371
XDR 0.810637
XOF 650.638158
XPF 119.331742
YER 279.914227
ZAR 20.806689
ZMK 10439.426614
ZMW 26.489791
ZWL 373.449528
  • CMSC

    0.0900

    22.314

    +0.4%

  • CMSD

    0.0250

    22.285

    +0.11%

  • RBGPF

    0.0000

    69.04

    0%

  • SCS

    0.0400

    10.74

    +0.37%

  • RELX

    0.0300

    53

    +0.06%

  • RIO

    -0.1400

    59.33

    -0.24%

  • GSK

    0.1300

    41.45

    +0.31%

  • NGG

    0.2700

    71.48

    +0.38%

  • BP

    0.1750

    30.4

    +0.58%

  • BTI

    0.7150

    48.215

    +1.48%

  • BCC

    0.7900

    91.02

    +0.87%

  • JRI

    0.0200

    13.13

    +0.15%

  • VOD

    0.0100

    9.85

    +0.1%

  • BCE

    -0.0600

    22.445

    -0.27%

  • RYCEF

    0.1000

    12

    +0.83%

  • AZN

    -0.1200

    73.71

    -0.16%

Julian Assange 'rediscovering life' as free man in Australia
Julian Assange 'rediscovering life' as free man in Australia / Photo: David GRAY - AFP

Julian Assange 'rediscovering life' as free man in Australia

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is "rediscovering life" as he tastes freedom in Australia after a five-year stretch in a London high-security prison, his wife said Thursday.

Text size:

The 52-year-old landed in Canberra the night before, hours after pleading guilty in a US Pacific island court to a single count of revealing military secrets.

Under a plea deal, he was sentenced to time already served and allowed to walk free, ending a 14-year legal struggle with the US Department of Justice.

But the jail time had taken a toll.

Assange did not attend a news conference after he touched down, with his wife apparently near tears as she pleaded for family privacy and time for him to recuperate.

"He's just savouring freedom for the first time in 14 years. He needs time to rest and recover. And he is just rediscovering normal life. And he needs space to do that," Stella Assange told reporters Thursday.

"Julian plans to swim in the ocean every day. He plans to sleep in a real bed. He plans to taste real food. And he plans to enjoy his freedom."

- 'Jumping on the sofa' -

The WikiLeaks publisher had yet to see his two children, who were staying elsewhere and had been sleeping when his plane landed, she said.

Stella Assange said she sent her husband a video on the day of his US court hearing showing their children "jumping on the sofa" at the prospect of their father's return.

Assange spent more than five years in London's Belmarsh prison fighting extradition to the United States on charges under the 1917 Espionage Act.

He had already lived for seven years in Ecuador's London embassy to escape extradition to Sweden over sexual assault charges, which were eventually dropped.

The couple have not had time to discuss how their lives will play out since his release, said Stella, who met Assange while he was still in the Ecuadorian embassy and married him in the London prison.

Assange's legal team argues that the US Justice Department's legal pursuit of their client will have a chilling effect on journalism.

They have called for US President Joe Biden to grant him a pardon.

"The president of the United States has absolute pardon power. President Biden or any subsequent president can, and in my mind should, issue a pardon to Julian Assange," said his US trial lawyer Barry Pollack.

- People put in 'danger' -

Assange had published hundreds of thousands of confidential US documents on the WikiLeaks whistleblowing website from 2010.

He became a hero to free speech campaigners but a villain to those who thought he had endangered US security and intelligence sources.

The Australian citizen was indicted by a US federal grand jury in 2019 on 18 counts stemming from WikiLeaks' publication of a trove of national security documents.

The material he released through WikiLeaks included video showing civilians being killed by fire from a US helicopter gunship in Iraq in 2007. The victims included a photographer and a driver from Reuters.

On Wednesday, the US State Department renewed its allegation that he put people at risk.

"The documents they published gave identifying information of individuals who were in contact with the State Department," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters in Washington.

"That included opposition leaders, human rights activists around the world -- whose positions were put in some danger."

The US Justice Department has banned Assange from returning to the United States without permission.

(S.G.Stein--BBZ)