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United States charges Julian Assange with spying
The charges supersede an earlier indictment obtained by the US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia in April charging Assange with computer hacking, which formed the basis for an extradition request from the US that led to his arrest in the United Kingdom, soon after he left the Ecuadorean embassy where he had taken shelter for seven years.
The United States on Thursday announced the indictment of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on multiple counts of violation of the country’s Espionage Act, that raised questions about implications for the freedom of press guaranteed by the American constitution’s First Amendment.
He was charged with 17 counts of violating the Espionage Act and one of computer intrusions. The maximum punishment for espionage is 10 years for each count, and 5 years for computer intrusion.
The charges supersede an earlier indictment obtained by the US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia in April charging Assange with computer hacking, which formed the basis for an extradition request from the US that led to his arrest in the United Kingdom, soon after he left the Ecuadorean embassy where he had taken shelter for seven years.
The new indictments refer to the 2010 release of thousands of classified US military and state department documents that he had helped Chelsea Manning, a US army intelligence analyst, download after hacking into the Secret Internet Protocol Network (SIPRNet), a United States government network used for classified documents and communications.
The charge of violating the Espionage Act was also considered by the Obama administration, which ultimately decided against it. Trump administration’s use of the act against Assange has raised questions about implications for press freedom as he has often described himself as a journalist with the same rights as others to publish classified government material.
The US justice department has disputed Assange is a journalist. “Julian Assange is no journalist,” Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C Demers said to reporters announcing the indictments.
But Bruce Brown, executive director Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said in a statement, “Any government use of the Espionage Act to criminalize the receipt and publication of classified information poses a dire threat to journalists seeking to publish such information in the public interest, irrespective of the Justice Department’s assertion that Assange is not a journalist.”
