Trump pardoning Julian Assange floated; peddler blames ‘faulty source’
Trump pardoning Julian Assange floated; peddler blames ‘faulty source’
48-year-old Julian Assange is slapped with 18 charges within the US including the Espionage Act, for “conspiring” to realize access in US military secrets.
Sparking off speculation on Monday evening, US Pastor Mark Burns who may be a close backer of Donald Trump said that the outgoing US President will pardon WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. However, within three hours he blamed “faulty source” for the knowledge , and put an end to the speculation for the nonce .
The incident occurred days after Julian Assange’s partner, Stella Moris, had tweeted to President Donald Trump on Thanksgiving, appealing to him to pardon the WikiLeaks founder.
Pardon demands by Assange’s partner
Moris had posted a photograph of their two young children on Twitter and wrote: “These are Julian’s sons Max and Gabriel. they have their father. Our family must be whole again.” “I beg you, please bring him home for Christmas,” she added. Moris said he has been confined exclusively to his cell for over every week due to a coronavirus outbreak on his prison block.
Earlier, on December 4, former CIA employee and whistleblower Edward Snowden requested the outgoing US President Donald Trump to “free Julian Assange”, stating that he can “save his life”.
Meanwhile, Assange’s extradition hearing began on September 7, and he attended four weeks at London’s Central court in September. The judge overseeing the case said she would deliver her decision on January 4 next year.
Case of Julian Assange’s
The 48-year-old currently imprisoned in Belmarsh is slapped with 18 charges within the us including the Espionage Act, for “conspiring” to realize access into US military secrets between January and should 2010. If convicted, he will confront to 175 years in US prison. Wikileaks, an anti-secrecy organisation, was founded in 2006 as a platform for whistleblowers to release classified information anonymously.
By 2015, Wikileaks became a portal to publish over 10 million documents, including top-secret documents. Ever since its launch in 2006, Wikileaks has published thousands of classified documents, disclosing the small print from national security, war, politics to the movie industry .
Assange is accused of conspiring with hackers affiliated to “Anonymous” and “LulzSec” to get classified information, as per US Justice Department’s updated indictment.
Assange’s defence team states that he’s a journalist and entitled to First Amendment protections for publishing leaked documents that exposed U.S. military wrongdoing in Iraq and Afghanistan. They also say that the conditions he would face during a U.S. prison would breach his human rights.
Assange jumped bail in 2012 and sought asylum at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, which ended up becoming his home for seven years before he was evicted and subsequently arrested. He has been during a London prison since April 2019.