Prosecution of Assange ‘politically motivated’

The prosecution of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange was "politically motivated" and had a "chilling" effect on the whole media landscape, the parliamentary arm of pan-European rights body the Council of Europe said on Wednesday.

Assange, whose site had published thousands of leaked diplomatic cables, won freedom in June after more than five years behind bars in a British prison when he pleaded guilty to a charge under the US espionage act.

Addressing the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on Tuesday in his first public comments since his release, Assange said he had "pleaded guilty to journalism".

The resolution passed by PACE's lawmakers, parliamentarians from the 46 member states of the Council of Europe, said Assange had suffered "more than a decade of politically motivated prosecution for his journalistic work."

It warned that the "disproportionately harsh treatment" of Assange "creates a dangerous, chilling effect and a climate of self-censorship affecting all journalists".

The resolution was passed to loud applause in the chamber with 88 for, 13 against and 20 abstentions. Assange, accompanied by his wife Stella and Wikileaks editor-in-chief Kristinn Hrafnsson, saluted the chamber and raised a fist in triumph from the public gallery.

Assange intially took refuge in the Ecuador embassy in London but when he was forced to leave in April 2019 he was held in the Belmarsh prison in London.

He was allowed to go free after a hearing on the US Pacific island of Saipan in June.