Assange ready to break his silence after incarceration

Controversial WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange plans to break his post-prison silence in an address to the Council of Europe next week, his organization revealed yesterday.

WikiLeaks said the 53-year-old would travel from his native Australia to Strasbourg, France on October 1 to testify before a parliamentary legal committee investigating his case.

Assange spent most of the last 14 years either holed up in the Ecuadoran embassy in London to avoid arrest or locked up at Belmarsh Prison.

He was released from British custody in June after serving a sentence for publishing hundreds of thousands of confidential US government documents.

The trove included searingly frank US State Department descriptions of foreign leaders, accounts of extrajudicial killings and intelligence gathering against allies.

Since returning to Australia, Assange has not publicly commented on his legal woes or years behind bars.

He has been seen infrequently, appearing at a court in the Marianas Islands, reuniting with his wife on arrival at a Canberra airport and spending time with his family on a quiet beach.

"Julian Assange is still in recovery following his release from prison," WikiLeaks said, noting he would attend the Council of Europe "session in person due to the exceptional nature of the invitation."

Matthew Ricketson, a communications professor at Deakin University, said Assange eventually breaking his silence had been expected.

"He's an inveterate limelight-seeker," Ricketson said. "It was only a matter of time before he put up his head again to speak publicly on issues that are of importance to him."

But the timing and his choice of venue have puzzled some. The Council of Europe, an international organization that brings together the 46 signatory states of the European Convention on Human Rights, has little say over Assange's legal fate.

Some legal experts believe Assange's appearance could put his bid for a US presidential pardon at risk.

"He'll inevitably be critical of the US government on some level and I can't see that as something that is going to be considered helpful," said Holly Cullen, a law professor at the University of Western Australia.

"Even if he personally thinks that he doesn't care, his legal advisers would say 'maybe you need to be a bit more restrained until the pardon issue is resolved'."

Chelsea Manning, the army intelligence analyst who leaked the documents to Assange, had her 35-year sentence commuted by then-president Barack Obama in 2017.

But Assange's case remains deeply contentious.

Supporters hail him as a champion of free speech and investigative journalism and say he was persecuted by authorities and unfairly imprisoned. Detractors see him as a reckless blogger whose decision to publish ultra-sensitive documents uncensored put lives at risk and fundamentally jeopardized US security.

President Joe Biden previously described Assange as a "terrorist."

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE