The prosecution of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange was “politically motivated” and had a “chilling” effect on the whole media landscape, the parliamentary arm of pan-European rights body the Council of Europe said on Wednesday.
Assange, whose site had published thousands of leaked diplomatic cables, won freedom in June after more than five years behind bars in a British prison when he pleaded guilty to a charge under the US espionage act.
Addressing the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on Tuesday in his first public comments since his release, Assange said he had “pleaded guilty to journalism”.
The resolution passed by PACE’s lawmakers, parliamentarians from the 46 member states of the Council of Europe, said Assange had suffered “more than a decade of politically motivated prosecution for his journalistic work.”
It warned that the “disproportionately harsh treatment” of Assange “creates a dangerous, chilling effect and a climate of self-censorship affecting all journalists”.
The resolution was passed to loud applause in the chamber with 88 for, 13 against and 20 abstentions. Assange, accompanied by his wife Stella and Wikileaks editor-in-chief Kristinn Hrafnsson, saluted the chamber and raised a fist in triumph from the public gallery.
Assange intially took refuge in the Ecuador embassy in London but when he was forced to leave in April 2019 he was held in the high-security Belmarsh prison in London.
He was allowed to go free after a hearing on the US Pacific island of Saipan in June and sentenced to time served. Until his trip to the Council of Europe headquarters, he spent time with his family in Strasbourg.
The PACE’s rapporteur on political prisoners, Icelandic lawmaker Sunna Aevarsdottir, said: “If you look at the definition of a political prisoner, Julian Assange and his case fulfil that definition.”
The PACE resolution said it was “alarmed” by reports that the CIA was covertly surveying Assange in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and “allegedly developing plans to poison or even assassinate him on United Kingdom soil”.
“It reiterates its condemnation of all forms and practices of transnational repression.”
It slammed the British authorities for failing “to effectively protect Assange’s freedom of expression and right to liberty”.
The UK should now “conduct an independent review” of his treatment “with a view to establishing whether he has been exposed to torture or inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”, it added.
PACE does not have the power to set laws but can demand action from member states of the Council of Europe, which is separate from the European Union.