WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is ready to break his self-imposed silence and address the Council of Europe, the organization said on Wednesday.
The 53-year-old is due to travel to Strasbourg from his native Australia in seven days to give evidence before the parliamentary legal affairs committee investigating his case, AFP reported. Report.
This means that he will be speaking publicly for the first time when he gives evidence before the Committee on Legal and Human Rights of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).
This follows Attorney General Pace's report into the case, which concluded that he was a political prisoner and called on the UK to investigate whether he had been subjected to inhuman treatment.
Assange has spent much of the past 14 years either holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London or in prison to avoid arrest.
he Detained He has been held in Belmarsh, a British security prison, since British authorities arrested him at the embassy in April 2019.
The Justice Department had accused Assange of working with former U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning (formerly Bradley Manning) to steal and disclose classified documents.
He was released from a British prison in June, Breitbart News reported.
Assange returned to Australia and has not commented publicly since about his legal woes or his years in prison.
He is only seen occasionally, appearing in court in the Mariana Islands, arriving at Canberra airport to be reunited with his wife, or spending time with his family on a secluded beach in Australia.
“Julian Assange is still recovering following his release from prison,” WikiLeaks said on Wednesday, noting that he would be attending the Council of Europe meeting in person “due to the unusual nature of the invitation.”
The Council of Europe is an international body that brings together the 46 signatories to the European Convention on Human Rights but has little say in Assange's legal fate.
Some legal experts believe Assange's appearance in court could jeopardize his application for a U.S. presidential pardon.
“Inevitably he will criticise the US government to some extent, but I'm not convinced that will be helpful,” Holly Cullen, a law professor at the University of Western Australia, told AFP.
“Even if he doesn't think he's worried, his legal advisers will say, 'Maybe you need to exercise a little more restraint until the pardon issue is resolved.'”
AFP contributed to this article
