07:54Aitor Martinez, one of Julian Assange's Spanish lawyers, said the US extradition case set a "very serious precedent for press freedom worldwide", during an exclusive interview in Madrid on Wednesday following the WikiLeaks founder's release under a plea deal.
"Instead of witnessing how the right to freedom of the press is enshrined and sacred in the United States, what we have seen with the Assange case is a clear regression and a radical assault on the right to freedom of the press, which should alert us to the fact that freedom of the press is not guaranteed in the world, and we must fight for it on a daily basis," said the lawyer.
"[It is] the political persecution of a journalist who simply published truthful information that evidenced the commission of serious war crimes," he claimed. "The United States has used national security as a veil under which it could even hide war crimes."
He went on saying that the democratic countries with 'advanced constitutions' should never view Assange's publications as 'espionage'.
"I believe there is no corner of the world where a 'Free Assange' movement has not sprung up. This is coupled with the international institutional system for the protection of human rights, such as that linked to the United Nations, which has also spoken out very strongly against the extradition," he said.
He added that the case was 'political' because Assange had embarrassed the US with his revelations.
"And it was a case that the US administration did not like politically either, but as these sources confess to these journalists, this case was being pushed radically by the US intelligence establishment and mainly by the CIA as a form of revenge against Julian Assange for the material he had published, which had somehow revealed the shame of the US military in operations abroad," he added.
The lawyer also praised the WikiLeaks founder, saying that he was a 'unicorn for the world of journalism' and remembered as a hero of press freedom, saying that Assange needed to continue with his journalistic work.
"We could conclude that he is the most relevant figure in journalism in the 21st century," he said.
On Wednesday morning, a US district courthouse in the Northern Mariana Islands heard the plea deal, with Assange entering a 'guilty' plea to a single charge of espionage. While the offence carried up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, Judge Ramona Manglona accepted the plea agreement and imposed a sentence of time served, amounting to the 62 months he spent in the UK's Belmarsh prison. She added that the case had not identified any 'victims' of his actions.
The WikiLeaks founder left Belmarsh on Monday evening after reaching the plea deal, boarding a plane at London's Stansted Airport.
The hearing's location in Saipan - the largest of the Northern Mariana Islands, a US commonwealth - was reportedly due to its proximity to Australia and his own opposition to travelling to the United States.
He had been detained in the London prison since 2019, and fought a long-running extradition battle with the US over 18 charges related to the release of classified documents involving the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
He was initially granted political asylum by Ecuador in the British capital in 2012 but was dragged from the embassy by UK police seven years later.
'US used national security as veil for war crimes' - Assange lawyer reacts as WikiLeaks founder freed *EXCLUSIVE*
Aitor Martinez, one of Julian Assange's Spanish lawyers, said the US extradition case set a "very serious precedent for press freedom worldwide", during an exclusive interview in Madrid on Wednesday following the WikiLeaks founder's release under a plea deal.
"Instead of witnessing how the right to freedom of the press is enshrined and sacred in the United States, what we have seen with the Assange case is a clear regression and a radical assault on the right to freedom of the press, which should alert us to the fact that freedom of the press is not guaranteed in the world, and we must fight for it on a daily basis," said the lawyer.
"[It is] the political persecution of a journalist who simply published truthful information that evidenced the commission of serious war crimes," he claimed. "The United States has used national security as a veil under which it could even hide war crimes."
He went on saying that the democratic countries with 'advanced constitutions' should never view Assange's publications as 'espionage'.
"I believe there is no corner of the world where a 'Free Assange' movement has not sprung up. This is coupled with the international institutional system for the protection of human rights, such as that linked to the United Nations, which has also spoken out very strongly against the extradition," he said.
He added that the case was 'political' because Assange had embarrassed the US with his revelations.
"And it was a case that the US administration did not like politically either, but as these sources confess to these journalists, this case was being pushed radically by the US intelligence establishment and mainly by the CIA as a form of revenge against Julian Assange for the material he had published, which had somehow revealed the shame of the US military in operations abroad," he added.
The lawyer also praised the WikiLeaks founder, saying that he was a 'unicorn for the world of journalism' and remembered as a hero of press freedom, saying that Assange needed to continue with his journalistic work.
"We could conclude that he is the most relevant figure in journalism in the 21st century," he said.
On Wednesday morning, a US district courthouse in the Northern Mariana Islands heard the plea deal, with Assange entering a 'guilty' plea to a single charge of espionage. While the offence carried up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, Judge Ramona Manglona accepted the plea agreement and imposed a sentence of time served, amounting to the 62 months he spent in the UK's Belmarsh prison. She added that the case had not identified any 'victims' of his actions.
The WikiLeaks founder left Belmarsh on Monday evening after reaching the plea deal, boarding a plane at London's Stansted Airport.
The hearing's location in Saipan - the largest of the Northern Mariana Islands, a US commonwealth - was reportedly due to its proximity to Australia and his own opposition to travelling to the United States.
He had been detained in the London prison since 2019, and fought a long-running extradition battle with the US over 18 charges related to the release of classified documents involving the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
He was initially granted political asylum by Ecuador in the British capital in 2012 but was dragged from the embassy by UK police seven years later.
Aitor Martinez, one of Julian Assange's Spanish lawyers, said the US extradition case set a "very serious precedent for press freedom worldwide", during an exclusive interview in Madrid on Wednesday following the WikiLeaks founder's release under a plea deal.
"Instead of witnessing how the right to freedom of the press is enshrined and sacred in the United States, what we have seen with the Assange case is a clear regression and a radical assault on the right to freedom of the press, which should alert us to the fact that freedom of the press is not guaranteed in the world, and we must fight for it on a daily basis," said the lawyer.
"[It is] the political persecution of a journalist who simply published truthful information that evidenced the commission of serious war crimes," he claimed. "The United States has used national security as a veil under which it could even hide war crimes."
He went on saying that the democratic countries with 'advanced constitutions' should never view Assange's publications as 'espionage'.
"I believe there is no corner of the world where a 'Free Assange' movement has not sprung up. This is coupled with the international institutional system for the protection of human rights, such as that linked to the United Nations, which has also spoken out very strongly against the extradition," he said.
He added that the case was 'political' because Assange had embarrassed the US with his revelations.
"And it was a case that the US administration did not like politically either, but as these sources confess to these journalists, this case was being pushed radically by the US intelligence establishment and mainly by the CIA as a form of revenge against Julian Assange for the material he had published, which had somehow revealed the shame of the US military in operations abroad," he added.
The lawyer also praised the WikiLeaks founder, saying that he was a 'unicorn for the world of journalism' and remembered as a hero of press freedom, saying that Assange needed to continue with his journalistic work.
"We could conclude that he is the most relevant figure in journalism in the 21st century," he said.
On Wednesday morning, a US district courthouse in the Northern Mariana Islands heard the plea deal, with Assange entering a 'guilty' plea to a single charge of espionage. While the offence carried up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, Judge Ramona Manglona accepted the plea agreement and imposed a sentence of time served, amounting to the 62 months he spent in the UK's Belmarsh prison. She added that the case had not identified any 'victims' of his actions.
The WikiLeaks founder left Belmarsh on Monday evening after reaching the plea deal, boarding a plane at London's Stansted Airport.
The hearing's location in Saipan - the largest of the Northern Mariana Islands, a US commonwealth - was reportedly due to its proximity to Australia and his own opposition to travelling to the United States.
He had been detained in the London prison since 2019, and fought a long-running extradition battle with the US over 18 charges related to the release of classified documents involving the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
He was initially granted political asylum by Ecuador in the British capital in 2012 but was dragged from the embassy by UK police seven years later.