“The released documents provided identifying information about individuals in contact with the State Department, including opposition leaders, human rights activists around the world, whose situations were put at risk due to their public disclosure,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.
“It also hampered the ability of U.S. personnel to build relationships and have frank conversations,” Mr. Miller added. Earlier today, Julien Assange, 52, was released after a quick hearing in the US federal court in Saipan, in the Northern Mariana Islands. He returned to Australia, his country of origin.
A 14-year legal saga
Under the agreement, the former computer scientist pleaded guilty to obtaining and disclosing national defense information. American justice was pursuing him for having made public since 2010 more than 700,000 confidential documents on American military and diplomatic activities, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Julien Assange is considered by his supporters as a hero of free speech, but his detractors accuse him of having distributed large quantities of government documents without any filtering. At the time, the State Department “had to go out of its way to get people out of danger,” Miller said, without being able to provide details.
The spokesperson for American diplomacy refused to comment on either the justice agreement itself or the negotiations with Australia, in particular those which made it possible to resolve this legal saga of nearly 14 years.