Things changed in 2023 when dozens of Australian lawmakers across the political spectrum swung in behind the campaign to bring Assange home.
Washington: A court on the remote US Pacific territory of Saipan ordered the immediate release of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who pleaded guilty to a single felony count of violating the Espionage Act. He will leave the court as a 'free man', Judge Ramona Manglona said.
As the 14-year legal battle came to an end, attorney Jennifer Robinson said intense diplomatic lobbying with the highest authorities in the US played a big role in Assange walking free, after spending five years in a high-security British prison and seven years holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
Robinson thanked Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, “for his statesmanship, his principled leadership, and his diplomacy”. A decade ago under a conservative government, there was little political will in Canberra to back Assange's case. But things changed in 2023 when dozens of lawmakers across the political spectrum swung in behind the campaign to bring him home, his father, John Shipton, told news agency Reuters.
Australian conservative lawmaker Barnaby Joyce said a trip to Washington last year to lobby for a resolution made the case on Capitol Hill that Australian politicians wanted to "get this thing done" because it was a distraction to Australia's security alliance with the US.
The PM claimed the release as a victory for the country, which leveraged its security ties with the US and the UK to strengthen its case to resolve the plight of an Australian citizen. As the high-profile trial of Assange took place, Albanese revealed the diplomacy process had been “considered” and “calibrated”. “This isn’t something that has happened in the last 24 hours. This is something that has been considered, patient, worked through in a calibrated way,” Albanese told reporters, according to Sky News.
"We have engaged and advocated Australia's interest using appropriate channels to support a positive outcome,” he added as he pointed to consular assistance provided to Assange and noted the presence of Australia’s High Commissioner to the UK Stephen Smith, and US Ambassador Kevin Rudd at the trial.
“I have been very clear as Labor leader and as Prime Minister that regardless of what your views (are) about Mr Assange’s activities, his case has dragged on for too long. There is nothing to be gained from his continued incarceration and we want him brought home to Australia.
“That’s something I’ve said as Labor leader. It’s something I’ve said as Prime Minister. And it’s something that I will have more to say about once these legal proceedings have concluded,” Albanese said.
Behind the scenes, Albanese and senior cabinet colleagues including Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Attorney General Dreyfus used visits to the US to lobby their counterparts, according to the government official.
