Julian Assange: Hero or Villain ?

By Prakriti Thapa

Try to imagine about a superhero- What comes to your mind? A Spider-man, an Ant-man, a Batman, a Shakti-man, or someone else with fancy customs gifted with extraordinary power, who aims to save people from probable disaster. From Ben-10 to Spiderman, from a child to an adult, once in their lifetime adore these superheroes. But which noun do you use for the person who doesn’t have supernatural power, dressed in simple customs but dared to challenge the system of the United States by simply informing the people about the wrong-doings and lies of the government to the public? A freedom fighter, a truth seeker, or the ultimate danger. He is Julian Assange. Assange- the truth seeker, champion of press freedom or the ultimate threat to the US government. The land which considers itself as the “Land of Liberty” has been asking for the extradition of a man who only tried to reveal the information that the government was trying to hide. This is the story of Julian Assange who has been a pain in the neck of the United States and the United Kingdom since 2010.

Born on July 1971 in Townsville Australia, he was computer savvy from his childhood. In his teenage, he cracked the websites of some of the most secure systems including that of NASA and the US Department of Defense. In 1991, Australian Authorities charged him with 31 different cases however he paid a small amount as a punishment, and all his activities were justified as a youthful inquisitiveness. Later, his love for computers and technology not only made him renowned all over the world but also made him a Villain of one of the most powerful countries in the world. The journey of Jullian Assange from an inquisitive youth with uncanny love for computers to a hacker, to an investigative journalist, a criminal, and ultimately a villain is nothing but a bolt from the blue. One fine day, a man pursuing his university degree in physics at the University of Melbourne decided to leave whatever he was doing and started working as a Cybersecurity consultant.

In 2006, the same man created a website as a clearinghouse for sensitive and classified documents (the documents that are considered sensitive and only the government authority has access to them.) – WikiLeaks. The documents provided by anonymous users started getting published on the website. In December 2006, the website made the first publication and it was a message from a Somali rebel leader encouraging the use of hired gunmen to assassinate government officials. The information published on the website was raw and unverified but after the site started getting more public attention the verification of the information put on the site was never questioned. Since it was publishing information of public attention, it gained popularity even more after 2010 when it published more than 5 hundred thousand Documents related to the role of the US in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars obtained from the US Army Intelligence Analyst- Chelsea Manning. It released more than 90 thousand classified documents about the US military role in Afghanistan war and 400 thousand secret US files on Iraq war. This incident is represented as one of the largest security breaches in US military history. And this particular incident made Julian Assange the Ultimate Threat and the Villain of the United States. In the same year, WikiLeaks also published 250 thousand secret diplomatic messages from US embassies around the world. And this led him to bigger trouble.

He has been accused of 18 charges in US due to the publication of those classified documents. When the secret information was leaked Assange was in London. To proceed the prosecution against him US Department of Justice asked UK authorities for his extradition but due to various reasons the extradition couldn’t happen and he is now at London’s High Security Belmarsh Prison. Back in November of 2010, Julian was accused of rape allegations made by two female Swedish WikiLeaks volunteers. The Swedish Court ordered an arrest warrant against him but he denied the allegations and claimed that the Swedish case was a fanciful story to extradite him to the United States to face charges against Wikileaks release. In December of 2010, he was arrested on a European arrest warrant but later released on bail. In 2011, the Westminster Magistrates Court of London ordered Julian to be extradited to Sweden but he appealed to the court’s decision. In 2012, the Supreme Court of UK rejected his appeal resulting in Assange to seek asylum in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London. Meanwhile, in 2011, Assange was awarded the Sydney Peace Gold Medal for the pursuit of peace with justice. He was awarded for the documents of the Iraq and Afghanistan war that he released through his site in 2010. The prestigious award has been given to the peacekeepers every year. Nelson Mandela and Dalai Lama are the recipient of this prestigious award. Contrary to this award, Australia is doing nothing to protect Assange who advocated for the justice of people killed in the Iraq and Afghanistan War.

However, the misery of Assange continued as he remained under the house arrest inside Ecuadorean Embassy. He was sentenced for 7 year house arrest: from 2012 to 2019. In the meantime, he recorded the series of interview which used to be broadcast through Russian Satellite News Network-RT. He interviewed Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Hezbollah group that attacked Israel in 2006. The USA had accused him of being a spy of Russian Intelligence Agencies, but he denied all the accusations. Things were going well but he threw another card in the 2016 US Presidential Race where Hillary Clinton was running for the President from the Democratic Party. Then he began publishing internal communications of the Party and Hillary Clinton which created damage to her election campaign. As the leak was one of the many reasons for her failure, she lost the presidential election and to the surprise of the whole world, Donald Trump won the election. Initially, Trump praised WikiLeaks but later he also continued the case against Assange that had been continued from 2010 when Barack Obama was the US president. In August 2015, the Swedish prosecutors dropped their investigation of the allegations against Assange as they had been unable to interview him before the expiration of the statute of limitations. And in May 2017, the investigation of the rape charges was discontinued. This came as a relief for Julian but the good times didn’t last longer as in April 2019, Ecuador withdrew asylum citing the violation of International Law during his time in the embassy. In June 2019, Assange was arrested after the British Government ensured through a written statement that “Assange would not be extradited to a country where he could face torture or the death penalty.” Right after he got arrested, the US Department of Justice appealed for the extradition. The hearings regarding extradition started in February 2020. In January 2021, Judge of London’s High Court Vanessa Baraitser concluded that Assange should not be sent to the US due to his frail mental health, adding there was a risk he would attempt suicide. However, in December 2021, US authorities won the appeal against the decision of the court after assuring them about the conditions of Assange’s detention if convicted, including a pledge he could be transferred to Australia to serve any sentence. But the case has been continuously appealed by the legal team of Assange as they fear that extradition to the US could lead to a 175-year prison sentence. The US prosecutors accused him of violating the Espionage Act and the prosecution is based on the 1917 Espionage Act. Silly thing, no case has been prosecuted against anyone before based on the foundation of this Act. After analyzing the history of Assange, what do you think? Hero or a Villain. Unlike many superheroes characters made by different companies of America, he is both the Hero and the Villain created by the United States. A hero for his supporters and the family members who were seeking end to the Wars created by America in Iraq and Afghanistan. A glorified villain for the officials of the United States Military and Hillary Clinton.