re:publica 25
26th-28th May 2025
STATION Berlin
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is currently the best-known imprisoned journalist in the world – even though he has not been convicted of a crime. He has been in administrative detention in the UK's most heavily monitored high-security prison, His Majesty's Prison Belmarsh, for an indefinite period since April 2019. Before that, he spent six and a half years in the Ecuadorian embassy in London in political asylum. At re:publica 24, we talk to Julian Assange's wife Stella and expert Andy Müller-Maguhn about this complex case, Julian's condition and current efforts to prevent his extradition to the US.
Julian Assange is accused of receiving secret documents about military operations from whistleblower Chelsea Manning – who spoke at re:publica in 2018 – and publishing them on his platform WikiLeaks. The leaked material documents war crimes, extrajudicial killings and civilian casualties during the US occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Since then, the US government and its intelligence agencies want to convict Julian Assange of espionage and treason. He faces up to 175 years in prison – and therefore a life sentence.
While the US government accuses him of putting the lives of whistleblowers in danger, his supporters see him as a journalist who has been targeted by the Washington justice system for exposing war crimes committed by the US Army. Julian Assange is supported by renowned journalist and human rights organisations, but also by several Latin American heads of state and heads of government. At the end of March, the High Court in London ruled that he can appeal against his planned extradition to the US and therefore cannot be handed over immediately to the USA.
Stella Assange is a human rights lawyer who was born in South Africa. She joined Assange’s legal team in 2011 and married Julian Assange in March 2022. During the latter stages of Assange’s political asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy, Stella and Julian as well as their infant child and several WikiLeaks lawyers were targeted by illegal surveillance measures.
Andy Müller-Maguhn is a German „Hacktivist“ and long time member of the Chaos Computer Club (CCC). From 1990 to 2003 he was one of the speakers of the CCC, and from 2000 to 2003 he acted as an elected director at ICANN. In 2010 he met Julian Assange and other members of WikiLeaks and began to collect donations for Assange’s legal defence together with the Wau Holland Foundation. As a friend and regular visitor of Julian at the Ecuadorian embassy, he too was under surveillance.
At #rp24, we look forward to exciting and very personal insights into this precedent in the fight for media freedom. The panel discussion will be moderated by historian and journalist Michael Sontheimer.
Genug ist Genug. Freiheit für Julian Assange!
Stella Assange, Andy Müller-Maguhn, Michael Sontheimer