Is Julian Assange a 'saint' or 'sinner'?

In brief…

• When WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange dumped tens of thousands of classified military documents on the internet in 2010, it sparked a storm.
• US prosecutors wanted to jail him for life on espionage charges, but activists said he was holding governments to account.
• He has finally been allowed to walk free after 14-years after signing a guilty plea deal. But was what he did right?

For many, the WikiLeaks founder was holding truth to power and exposing a matter in the public interest by spilling US military secrets.

For others, he put homeland security and lives at risk.

Then there’s the rape allegations that were later dropped.

Whatever you think of him, his story is extraordinary.

Now, he has been freed from a UK prison after a 14-year-long legal saga over the leaking of tens of thousands of classified US military documents on his WikiLeaks website.

It comes after the 52-year-old Australian signed a guilty plea deal with US prosecutors to avoid further imprisonment, court documents released on Monday revealed.

The News Agents takes a look at what happened and what it means.

“It came as an absolute body blow for many journalists at the time”, says Emily Maitlis.

She adds that the trove of military secrets - from a clip of an American helicopter attacking Bagdad to a cache of documents on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq - were like “goldust”.

Emily says: “Somebody was in a sense doing our job in a much more wholesale, much more dynamic, dramatic and maybe illegal way”.

But the world was split between those who thought this was an incredibly important step to hold governments to account, and those who thought he was putting more people at risk.

According to Jon Sopel, the story is a “murky” one.

He asks: “Is he a champion for free speech or is he an activist who has managed to get more information than any group of journalists?”

“If he is an activist and doesn’t feel bound by the same kind of rules working within the security apparatus, then it is a bit rogue”, he adds.

That includes human rights groups like Amnesty International, who feared deadly ramifications for soldiers included in the war logs Wikileaks had published.

There was “no filter, no redaction”, says Maitlis.

She adds: “He was at the extreme end of putting any kind of guardrails round the stuff he was leaking out, even if it was top security secret.

“On the other side, the US was on the extreme end by saying ‘this man is a terrorist.’”

There are many twists and turns in the legal saga, but here are the highlights

2006 - Assange sets up WikiLeaks, a searchable database of documents that are submitted anonymously and are typically unavailable to the public.

2010 - The US launches an investigation into Assange for publishing classified military information, which it claimed endangered lives. Prosecutors originally wanted to charge him on 18 counts - mostly under the Espionage Act - and he faced being jailed for life.

Also in 2010 - Assange is investigated by interpol and Swedish police over separate rape allegations. Both investigations are eventually dropped after authorities fail to gather enough evidence.

2012 - Assange seeks refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London and is later granted political asylum, legally letting him stay in the embassy.

2019 - Assange is carried out of the embassy and is moved to Belmarsh Prison after Ecuador revokes his political asylum.

2020 -  Assange’s lawyers argue in an extradition hearing that he cannot legally be sent to the US for “political offences” because of a 2003 extradition treaty.

2021 - An Old Bailey judge rules that Assange cannot be extradited to the US. But later that year, the American government wins a High Court bid to overturn the judge’s decision not to extradite him. Assange’s lawyers then launch an appeal. 

2023 - Skip ahead a year, and celebrities and activists are backing Assange as they campaign in support of his appeal. 

2024 -  Assange’s lawyer warns his life “is at risk” if his final appeal against his extradition to America falls through.

Now - Assange pleads guilty to an Espionage Act charge of conspiring to unlawfully obtain and spread secret defence information.

What's the takeaway?

Sopel says: "Assange has accepted that what he did was wrong because he is pleading guilty to a criminal offence of espionage. But it allows him the carry on with the rest of his life after this extraordinary chapter going back 14 years.

"It has been resolved in a nuanced and sensible way that doesn't mean he emerges as this hero superstar of the Stop the War coalition."

Listen to the latest episode of The News Agents podcast now.