Why does the US accept "raising high and hitting lightly", who is behind the "turnarounds"?

Without the quiet diplomatic efforts of the Australian government, including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, the freedom of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange might not have come so soon.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange gestures after landing at RAAF Fairbairn airbase in Canberra, Australia on June 26, ending a 14-year legal saga. (Source: AP)

Prime Minister Albanese's "nail-biting" quote

After WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was ordered released by the US District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands on June 26, ending a 14-year legal battle, Asssange's legal team first thanked Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for helping them achieve this result.

According to Ms. Jennifer Robinson, an Australian lawyer representing Mr. Assange, the Australian government's quiet diplomacy and active lobbying with the highest authorities in the US played an important role in helping Mr. Assange to be released after 5 years of imprisonment in a British prison and 7 years of hiding in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.

“Whenever Australian officials meet with US authorities, they stress that they are acting under the direction of the Australian Prime Minister,” Robinson told reporters outside the courtroom on Saipan.

For his part, Prime Minister Albanese declared Assange’s release a victory for the country. The Australian government has used its close security ties with Washington and London to strengthen its position in resolving the difficult situation of an Australian citizen.

Speaking to Parliament on June 26, Prime Minister Albanese stated: “This is a complex and carefully considered task. This is an action to protect Australian citizens around the world."

Mr Assange faced a maximum sentence of 175 years in prison on 17 counts of violating the US Espionage Act and one count of hacking.

Assange pleaded guilty to a single espionage charge and was released under a deal revealed on June 25. The deal was seen as a major success as the US faced growing challenges in Britain over the legality of Assange’s extradition, while Australian lawmakers and diplomats raised tensions in Washington and London.

Silent diplomacy

Dozens of Australian lawmakers have joined the campaign to bring Assange back to the country since 2023. In February, the Australian Parliament passed a motion calling for his release.

Australian conservative lawmaker Barnaby Joyce, a former deputy prime minister, was among a cross-party lobbying group that traveled to Washington in September 2023. Mr. Joyce said on June 26 that during the trip, Australian politicians wanted to emphasize that there must be a solution to the incident, otherwise it would weaken the Australia-US security alliance.

An Australian government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the first major breakthrough in Mr. Assange’s case came in January 2021, when then-Attorney General Mark Dreyfus issued a statement calling for the case against Mr. Assange to be dropped after a British court found his extradition to the United States was unjust.

When Labor won power in May 2022, Mr Assange received strong diplomatic support from the Australian government. Later that year, Prime Minister Albanese called for his release in the House of Representatives, the first time a prime minister had mentioned Mr Assange in parliament since 2012.

At that time, Prime Minister Albanese stated: "Enough is enough, it is time for this matter to be brought to an end. My position is very clear and has been made clear to the US government that it is time for this matter to be brought to an end. He is an Australian citizen."

Behind the scenes, Prime Minister Albanese and senior cabinet officials including Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Attorney-General Dreyfus have been lobbying for Mr Assange's case to be resolved during official visits to the US.

The appointment of Stephen Francis Smith and Kevin Rudd to top diplomatic posts in London and Washington in late 2022 also added two lobbyists sympathetic to Assange. In April 2023, Smith visited Assange in Belmarsh prison, the first visit by a top Australian diplomat to the UK since the WikiLeaks founder was jailed four years earlier.

America "respects", why?

According to Professor Mark Kenny at the Australian National University, the deeper relationship between Australia and the US through the AUKUS security treaty has helped boost diplomatic efforts.

As recently as July 2023, US officials appeared determined to prosecute Mr Assange. That month, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Australia needed to understand US concerns about the issue. However, a month later, US Ambassador to Australia Caroline Kennedy said a deal was possible.

After a cross-party delegation of Australian politicians traveled to Washington in September 2023 to talk to Republican and Democratic lawmakers about Assange, the Biden administration appeared to have a more subdued response. When asked by the media about Australia’s request to drop the Assange case, President Biden said: “We’re looking at that.”

However, the decision by London's High Court in May to allow Mr Assange to appeal his extradition marked a breakthrough in plea deal talks.

The court’s decision means the extradition battle is likely to be delayed for months. According to an Australian government official, the original plan to send Mr Assange to New York or Washington for his defence has been changed to Saipan because Mr Assange is opposed to entering the US mainland.

The plea deal between Mr. Assange and the US Justice Department marked the end of a legal saga involving one of the biggest security breaches in US military history.

In a wave of global support, a crowdfunding campaign to raise $520,000 for Australian government flights to the case had raised nearly $418,000 by the evening of June 26.

“It was the work of millions of people,” said Stella, the wife of the WikiLeaks founder. “There were people working silently behind the scenes, people protesting in the streets for days, weeks, months, years. And in the end, we got the result.”

Source: https://baoquocte.vn/vu-viec-nha-sang-lap-wikileaks-vi-sao-my-chap-nhan-gio-cao-danh-khe-ai-dung-sau-nhung-cu-quay-xe-276920.html