Julian Assange freed as it happened: WikiLeaks founder returns to Australia for first time in 14 years

That’s where we’ll leave our live coverage of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s return to Australia – any updates on this story will be covered in our National blog, which you can access here.

Thanks for joining us. Here’s a quick recap of what happened today:

Independent MP Zoe Daniel with Julian Assange’s wife, Stella Assange, and his lawyer, Jennifer Robinson.Credit: James Brickwood

• Coalition members, including Simon Birmingham and James Paterson, have criticised Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for calling WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and treating him like a hero.
• Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong said she was disappointed with Birmingham for saying Australia’s relationship with the United States had been damaged in the wake of Assange’s release.
• Lawyer and wife of Assange, Stella Assange, says the moment she got a call from Albanese to speak with the WikiLeaks founder was “really moving and emotional”.
• Stella Assange told a press conference in Canberra that Julian’s priority is to rest and recover.
• A single bitcoin donation worth almost $740,000 has been made to Julian Assange’s cause, covering the cost of his chartered jet.

Thanks for joining us, stay tuned with all live news coverage in the National blog.

A single bitcoin donation worth almost $740,000 has been made to Julian Assange’s cause, covering nearly the entirety of the cost of his chartered jet.

Supporters of Assange have multiple forums to donate, including directly through cryptocurrency.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange arrived in Canberra at 7.37pm on Wednesday.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

A transaction recorded on mempool.space – a software website used to visualise data about the Bitcoin ecosystem – shows one user donated ‎8.07173122 BTC to Assange’s link, which converts to $739,789.

Assange’s wife, lawyer Stella Assange, told Reuters on Wednesday that this week’s chartered flights cost $782,334.

Assange’s team has also raised $793,456 via Crowdfunder and $20,384 via GoFundMe, meaning his campaign has surpassed the cost of the jet hire.

The Free Assange website states that Assange is in “dire need of recovery” and the leftover funds will be used to ensure his “recovery and well-being and safety”.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong has thanked Australian ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd and Australian high commissioner to the UK Stephen Smith for their “instrumental” work securing Julian Assange’s release.

In a post to her X and Instagram accounts, Wong praised both men for their “determined diplomatic efforts” to bring the WikiLeaks founder home.

“Both have been instrumental in engaging with Mr Assange’s legal team and the US system to conclude this matter,” she wrote.

Independent MP Andrew Wilkie and Greens senator David Shoebridge have dismissed claims that US-Australia relations were damaged when the prime minister called Julian Assange.

Speaking at a press conference at Parliament House, Wilkie said the relationship between Canberra and Washington is as strong as it has ever been.

The Bring Julian Assange Home Parliamentary group at a press conference in May 2023.Credit: Rhett Wyman

“For some time now, the incarceration of Julian Assange was a thorn in the side of that relationship, it was just niggling away on the margins,” Wilkie said.

“That has now been fixed, so I now see reason to be very optimistic about the bilateral relationship you know, that thorn has been pulled out.”

Shoebridge said there was no problem with Anthony Albanese calling Assange, in response to criticism from Coalition MPs.

“If an Australian prime minister talking to an Australian citizen challenges the relationship with the United States, there’s a problem with the relationship,” he said.

Stella Assange has told a press conference that Julian Assange’s priority is to rest and recover, as she bats away questions about whether he will launch a second form of WikiLeaks or release classified documents again.

Flanked by the Bring Julian Assange Home parliamentary group, which includes independent MP Andrew Wilkie and Labor MP Julian Hill, Assange said her husband plans to enjoy life again.

Stella Assange at a press conference last night. Credit: James Brickwood

“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,” she said.

“Julian is the most principled man I know, and he will always defend human rights and speak out against injustice, and he can choose how he does that because he is a free man.

“He needs time to rest and to recover and he’s just rediscovering normal life, and he needs space to do that.”

Assange added that her husband has not yet seen their children.

“I’m obviously here and the kids were asleep when we arrived last night … it still hasn’t happened yet,” she said.

“They were very excited when they found out that he was coming home.

“I managed to send a video of them reacting, jumping on the sofa … He was very, very pleased.”

As the political implications of Julian Assange’s return to Australia filter through Canberra, reactions from abroad have been swift.

Figures from human rights groups and the intelligence world have condemned the legacy of WikiLeaks’ mass release of sensitive documents.

Andrei Sannikov, from the Index on Censorship, which supports the free speech of persecuted people, claimed that Wikileaks’ Russian representative Israel Shamir in 2010 “informed on the Belarus opposition helping to jail us”.

“He and his colleagues put so many human lives in mortal danger, not only of the US intelligence and their sources, but also of freedom fighters.”

Assange was “no hero and no journalist”, Sannikov wrote.

Between 2010 and 2011, Wikileaks released 75,000 Afghanistan war-related documents, with subsequent media reports revealing that “unredacted names of Afghan citizens co-operating with US and coalition forces were included in the material”, according to the 2020 paper Espionage, the First Amendment, and the Case against Julian Assange.

In the same period, 400,000 Iraq war-related reports, 800 Guantanamo detainee assessment briefs, and over 100,000 State Department cables were published.

The State Department warned WikiLeaks that “the disclosure of these cables would [p]lace at risk the lives of countless innocent individuals – from journalists to human rights activists and bloggers to soldiers to individuals providing information to further peace and security”, the academic report noted.

“The US State Department is reported to have undertaken efforts to warn hundreds of human rights activists and foreign government officials regarding the threat posed by the disclosure of their identities.”

A “handful” of these individuals were ultimately relocated to safer locations, either within their home countries or abroad. It was also reported that Afghan and Pakistani citizens had become more reluctant to speak with human rights investigators and that contact between human rights activists and diplomats had diminished.

Berlin-based Sergej Sumlenny, founder of the pro-democracy European Resilience Initiative Centre, wrote: “Julian Assange has enabled prosecution of people I would be honoured to die protecting. Those who praise this shitty person as a hero are either idiots or enemies of freedom and dignity.”

Former CIA analyst Gail Helt wrote: “Folks. Julian Assange is no hero.”

“He is a despicable Russian asset who harmed hundreds of people and dismissed them like they didn’t matter.

“I’m okay with the plea agreement because I hope it means I’ll see his name in my social media feeds a lot less, but let’s not venerate the man. He caused great harm.”

Coalition home affairs spokesman James Paterson says it is wrong to compare Julian Assange to other Australians who have been freed and returned home from foreign jails.

Speaking on Sky News, Paterson welcomed Assange being released, but said the WikiLeaks founder had committed an offence against the Five Eyes intelligence gathering alliance.

Opposition home affairs spokesperson James Paterson.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“The opposition has welcomed [Assange’s] decision to plead guilty so that he can be released. But I think it is a mistake, as some have done, and including the prime minister, to make comparisons between Julian Assange and Cheng Lei, Sean Turnell and Kylie Moore-Gilbert,” he said.

“I mean, these were Australians who were innocent, who were persecuted for other reasons by authoritarian powers.

“Mr Assange evaded lawful extradition requests first by hiding in the Ecuadorian embassy, then by using his legal rights in the United Kingdom to challenge them over many years. The reason why this is taking so long to resolve is because of his decision to challenge it in that way.

“He is now someone who’s pled guilty to very serious national security offences, which, you know, are not just offences against the United States. They’re offences against the Five Eyes intelligence gathering alliance, including Australia, because they put the sources of that alliance at grave risk.”

Finance Minister Katy Gallagher has backed the prime minister calling Julian Assange, saying it is no surprise the opposition is seeking to “divide and be negative about this”.

Speaking on ABC Radio National, Gallagher said for Anthony Albanese to call the WikiLeaks founder was entirely appropriate.

Finance Minister Katy Gallagher.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“The government’s pleased to see him home, and it’s been through the efforts of the … prime minister, foreign minister, the attorney-general and of course [high commissioner to the UK] Stephen Smith and [ambassador to the US] Kevin Rudd,” she said.

“It was a big event to see him land in Australia, and I think generally outside of the opposition, this has been welcomed as an appropriate move for something that had gone on for so long. I don’t think it’s a surprise that the opposition seek to either try to write themselves in or seek to divide and be negative about this.”

Gallagher acknowledged everyone has different views about Assange, but it was agreed the case had gone on for too long.

An emotional moment of hugs and near tears was shared between Foreign Minister Penny Wong, Stella Assange and Australian lawyer Jennifer Robinson as the group met for the first time since Julian Assange’s release.

Meeting in this masthead’s Canberra bureau during a flurry of media interviews, Assange fought back tears as she spoke with Wong.

Stella Assange and Australian human rights lawyer Jennifer Robinson meet with Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong in the Nine/Sydney Morning Herald/Age Canberra bureau offices.Credit: James Brickwood

Wong asked Assange if she was okay and whether she got enough sleep last night.

“I did actually, it’s been pretty exhausting,” Assange responded.

Robinson said the release of the WikiLeaks founder was a “testament” to Wong’s diplomacy.

“Honestly, government after government here did not listen and did not do anything, and it was your government,” Robinson said.

“That made a difference, so yes, we had to negotiate a very complex thing, but without the Australian government support, we wouldn’t have got there. Thank you.”

Wong also gave credit to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for his motivation to resolve Assange’s detention.

“Full credit to the prime minister, he had a very strong resolution in the importance of resolving this,” Wong said.

The trio gave each other hugs and then made their way into a private room to keep speaking, away from a growing media pack.

Julian Assange’s wife says the moment she got a call from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to speak with the WikiLeaks founder was “really moving and emotional”.

“To touch down in Canberra last night was incredibly emotional, for me and for him, so I’d held myself together as long until he landed in Australia, and then I have to say that I did have a few tears,” Stella Assange told ABC Radio National.

Julian Assange kisses his wife Stella Assange as lawyers Jennifer Robinson and Barry Pollack look on.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“[As soon as Assange] landed, Prime Minister Albanese called my phone so he could speak to Julian and it was a really moving and emotional moment.”

Assange’s lawyer Jennifer Robinson said Coalition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham needed to get his “priorities straight” after he criticised Albanese for calling her client.

“It is entirely appropriate for the Australian prime minister to call an Australian citizen who has been through what Julian has been [through],” Robinson said.

Stella Assange also backed Albanese making the call to her husband.

“I think Julian’s return to Australia is a historic moment, it belongs to all Australians. It belongs to Australia as a whole, and I think it’s a moment for everyone to celebrate that this Walkley-awarded journalist has finally been able to return to his home country,” she said.