WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange attends a hearing on his detention and conviction, and their effect on human rights before the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in Strasbourg, France, October 1, 2024. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe
STRASBOURG (France) (Reuters) -Julian Assange, the founder of whistleblower media group WikiLeaks, told European lawmakers on Tuesday his guilty plea to U.S. espionage accusations was necessary because legal and political efforts to protect his freedom were not sufficient.
"I eventually chose freedom over an unrealisable justice," Assange said, in his first public comments since his release from prison, addressing a committee at the Council of Europe, the international body best known for its human rights convention.
