WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange returned to Australia last night, landing in Canberra to the open arms of his wife, Stella, and his father, John Shipton. Accompanying the 52-year old was the human rights lawyer, Jennifer Robinson, who has spent over a decade working in London to aid Assange’s freedom.
Both Stella Assange and Jennifer Robinson spoke to the press last night, expressing their “delight” at the end of the legal ordeal. On Wednesday, in a US court in Saipan, Assange pleaded guilty to conspiring to obtain and disclose classified US national defence documents. The plea-deal secured his freedom, having already served five years in maximum security at Belmarsh Prison.
“We celebrate today Julian is free,” Stella Assange said last night, admitting she was overcome by emotion when she was reunited with her husband.
She made a statement to the media in Canberra, thanking the prime minister Anthony Albanese, DFAT officials, and the Australian public for their work and support.
“[The supporters] made this possible because without [them], there would not be the political space to be able to achieve Julian’s freedom and that support is across the board,” she said.
“It took millions of people…people working behind the scenes, people protesting on the streets for days and weeks and months and years and we achieved it.”
She relayed a message of gratitude from her husband, and asked the press and public to give her family the space to heal and recover from the 14-year ordeal.
“He wanted to be here, but you have to understand what he’s been through,” she said. “He needs time, he needs to recuperate. And this is a process. I ask you please to give us space to give us privacy, to find our place, to let our family be a family before he can speak again at a time of his choosing.”
“Julian needs time. He needs to recover, and to get used to freedom. I want Julian to have the space to rediscover freedom slowly…and quickly.”
She added that the case against her husband was “an attack on the public’s right to know and it should never have been brought.”
“Julian should never have spent a single day in prison,” she said. “I hope journalists and editors and publishers everywhere realise the danger of this US case against Julian that criminalises…news gathering and publishing information that was in the public interest.”
She encouraged the press to speak for “this current state of affairs” and to demand a reform of the espionage act through increased press protections.
“I think he’ll be pardoned if the press unite, to push back, on this precedent, because it affects all of you. It affects your future ability to inform the public and to publish without fear.”
Overnight, she made an emergency appeal for donations on X, asking the public for financial assistance “to cover massive USD 520,000 debt for jet.”
“Julian’s travel to freedom comes at a massive cost: Julian will owe USD 520,000 which he is obligated to pay back to the Australian government for charter Flight VJ199,” she wrote. “He was not permitted to fly commercial airlines or routes to Saipan and onward to Australia. Any contribution big or small is much appreciated.”
Jennifer Robinson described the case against her client as “the criminalisation of journalism” and said that while the result is a huge win for Australia, the prosecution itself sets a precedent that can be used against the media.
“It’s important that journalists all around the world understand the dangerous precedent that this prosecution has set,” she said.
“Today is the product of fourteen-long years of legal battles, political advocacy and ongoing campaigning, not just by us, by so many people in this community, a global movement was created around Julian and the need to protect free speech.”
Robinson thanked the prime minister, who she spoke to over the phone shortly after she landed, crediting him with saving her client’s life.
“I don’t think that’s an exaggeration,” she said, describing the principaled leadership, statesmanship and diplomacy that he showed in leading the effort to bring Assange home to Australia.
“As prime minister, he kept his word,” she said. “He raised it at the highest level of every single opportunity. He has continued to ask the US to bring this to an end. His efforts completely changed the situation for Julian and enabled our negotiations with the US government that allowed us to reach this outcome.”
At a closed gathering inside the Herald’s Canberra bureau offices, Robinson and Stella Assange briefly spoke with Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong who also praised the prime minister for his efforts.
“Full credit to the prime minister, he had a very strong resolution in the importance of resolving this,” Wong said.
Robinson said Assange’s release was “testament” to Wong’s diplomacy.
“Honestly, government after government here did not listen and did not do anything, and it was your government,” Robinson said. “That made a difference, so yes, we had to negotiate a very complex thing but without the Australian government support, we wouldn’t have got there. Thank you.”
In a recent Monthly profile, writer Lucia Osborne-Crowley described Robinson as a compassionate lawyer with a deep humility for her clients.
She has been involved in a number of high profile cases, including the detainment of Egyptian-Australian Hazem Hamouda in 2018, the Matildas’ fight for pay equality in the Women’s World Cup last year (the case was eventually dropped), various cases with the National Justice Project involving Indigenous deaths in custody and Amber Heard’s case against her former husband, Johnny Depp in the UK libel lawsuit.
She was also a lawyer on Benny Wenda’s defence team when the West Papuan independence leader was accused of inciting an attack on a police station and inciting the local population in raising the West Papua flag to defend it.
In 2021, Heard introduced an episode of Australian Story about Robinson, where she called her lawyer a “dear friend, an advocate and an invaluable resource and support system for me.”
At the time, Robinson also launched a scholarship program to assist high-achieving, public high school students with money to cover educational resources including laptops, co-curricular programs and travel costs.
Robinson was raised in Berry, NSW, to a school-teacher mother and a race horse trainer father. She studied law at ANU, completing a double degree in Asian studies, focused on Indonesian. During her time abroad as a student, she became involved in West Papua human rights advocacy, investigating rape, torture and human rights abuse.
In 2016, she joined Doughty Street Chambers in London, where her mentor Geoffrey Robertson was a founding head. Her association with Robertson was how she became initially involved with defending Julian Assange.
In 2022, the former Rhodes scholar published a book with long-time colleague Keina Yoshida called How Many More Women? which investigates recent high-profile judgments, developments and trends that have silenced and disadvantaged women.
Earlier this morning, she spoke at the press conference in Parliament House in Canberra, reiterating her gratitude to the supporters:
“I am eternally grateful to everyone who has made this possible in this building,” she said. “The group of friends from across the political spectrum, who came together on this issue. I think it is unique that it got people together from all sides to work towards Julian’s freedom and to keep it at the top of the agenda for years now. The results we see today, we see last night, I think the whole world celebrated with us. It was us meeting on the tarmac but it was the entire world who was celebrating.”