Family photo shows Julian Assange lying low in Melbourne

Julian Assange’s supporters have launched an energetic campaign for US President Joe Biden to grant the WikiLeaks founder a pardon before leaving office next year, as new photos emerge of Assange’s life as a free man in Australia.

Assange has been secluded from public view since his dramatic return to Australia in late June, after he pleaded guilty to one count of violating the US Espionage Act in exchange for his immediate release from detention in a high-security London prison.

Assange’s brother, Gabriel Shipton, who led the push to free Assange, will travel to the United States later this month to meet American politicians and civil society groups in a bid to create momentum for Biden to pardon Assange before his tenure ends on January 20.

Julian Assange (left) and father John Shipton in Melbourne

Shipton’s trip will happen around the same time that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese travels to the US to meet Biden and fellow Quad leaders Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

In the new photos of Assange, provided to this masthead, the WikiLeaks founder can be seen celebrating his father John Shipton’s 80th birthday this week in suburban Melbourne and posing in front of a campervan his father used to campaign for his release.

The only other new photos of Assange published in the 11 weeks since his arrival in Australia were family pictures uploaded to Instagram in July by his wife, Stella.

Julian Assange (right) and father John Shipton in Melbourne

Gabriel Shipton said Assange was enjoying spending time with his family while trying to stay out of the media glare.

“It will be a slow process for him to adjust to a totally different normal life,” he said.

Shipton said it was “extremely important” to Assange personally to receive a pardon, an executive order granting clemency for a conviction at the president’s discretion.

“To gain his freedom back, he had to agree to become a convicted criminal. That has all types of restrictions on how he can make a living and support his family,” Shipton said, pointing to proceeds-of-crime laws and possible hurdles to travel.

He said a pardon would also “soften the blow” to press freedom caused by Assange’s guilty plea.

Almost 15,000 people have signed a petition to Biden urging him to pardon Assange because his conviction set a “dangerous precedent criminalising journalistic activities globally”.

Noting that Biden had made strong remarks about journalism not being a crime, Shipton urged Albanese to raise the matter with the US president.

“The prime minister has a great relationship with President Biden, and he’ll have the opportunity to raise this issue in a farewell call with him when it will be sitting on Biden’s desk,” he said.

“He can say, ‘This will be good for your legacy and be appreciated by Australians’.”

Shipton also urged Australia’s ambassador to the US, Kevin Rudd, to use his extensive contacts in Washington, DC, to lobby for a pardon.

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