Julian Assange, the 52-year-old founder of WikiLeaks, finally walked to freedom in the early hours of Wednesday after a 12-year ordeal. Assange, who had been fighting US efforts to extradite him from the UK where he was holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy during 2012-19 and in prison afterwards, had leaked over 7,00,000 classified documents and videos linked to alleged US war crimes. These included the US military’s operating manual for its infamous detention camp in Guantanamo Bay and a classified US video of a July 2007 helicopter attack in Baghdad that killed a dozen civilians, including two journalists. The trove of leaked classified documents was aimed at exposing the US’s involvement in what Assange described as “compelling evidence of war crimes”. For his whistleblowing and alleged role in breaching US security, Assange faced 18 charges and a maximum of 175 years in prison.

Source: Indian Express June 27, 2024 00:52 UTC