MOSCOW, June 26. /TASS/. The situation around WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange shows what Western statements about freedom of speech and freedom of the press are really worth, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova pointed out.
"We have learned about the crimes of the collective West. On such a scale and in such a concentrated manner and, most importantly, with evidence, no one before Assange and before the WikiLeaks team had ever exposed the collective West so effectively," the diplomat noted during the Sputnik radio broadcast.
"We saw the real value of Western words about freedom of speech, freedom of the press and ensuring the safety of journalists by what happened to Assange himself," the spokeswoman said when asked what the world had learned from the WikiLeaks founder's story. Meanwhile, Zakharova called Assange a journalist "from the so-called new media."
According to her, the West "chased Assange around the globe like a wounded animal" and then "just drove him to the Ecuadorian embassy to languish there," after which he went to a British prison.
The diplomat added that she was very frightened that Assange did not say a single word after leaving the court. "You understand perfectly well, a man who comes out after so many years of illegal, unjust, humiliating persecution, a man who is, in general, a fighter for freedom, who puts truth above his own well-being, <...> probably has something to say to the people who supported him," Zakharova said.
In 2019, Assange was placed in Belmarsh prison after being removed from the Ecuadorian embassy in London. For more than five years, Washington kept trying to ensure the extradition of the WikiLeaks founder from Britain to the United States, where he was accused of crimes related to the largest case of disclosure of classified information in American history.
As part of a deal with US prosecutors, Assange pleaded guilty in court to conspiracy to obtain and disseminate classified information. For this offense, the Australian was given a sentence for the time he had already served in a British prison. Immediately after the hearing, the WikiLeaks founder flew on a private jet from Saipan airport to Canberra. He was accompanied on board by Australian Ambassador to the United States Kevin Rudd and Australian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom Stephen Smith.