Julian Assange appears in smiling beachside family photo
The South Africa-born wife of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has offered a rare glimpse into his post-prison life.
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The South Africa-born wife of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has offered a rare glimpse into his post-prison life, releasing a candid family photo showing him basking in freedom on a deserted beach.
Assange, 53, returned to his native Australia in June after a deal was struck to end his 14-year legal struggle with the US Department of Justice.
He has shunned the spotlight since his reunion with wife Stella at Canberra Airport in Australia’s capital.
Simply captioned “Family photo!”, Stella released a picture on social media overnight showing a smiling Assange on a beach with young sons Gabriel and Max.
The photo did not specify a location, although local media said it appeared to be somewhere in Australia.
Lawyer Stella, who married Assange while he was locked up in London’s Belmarsh prison, has previously said he would use his freedom to “swim in the ocean every day”.
“He plans to sleep in a real bed. He plans to taste real food. And he plans to enjoy his freedom,” she told reporters in Australia shortly after his arrival.
Julian Assange became a hero to free speech campaigners
She previously posted a photo on July 3 – Assange’s birthday – showing the couple in a forested area with the caption: “Free!”.
Assange spent more than five years in Belmarsh fighting extradition to the United States on charges under the 1917 Espionage Act.
He had already lived for seven years in Ecuador’s London embassy to escape extradition to Sweden over sexual assault charges, which were eventually dropped.
Assange had published hundreds of thousands of confidential US documents on the WikiLeaks whistleblowing website from 2010.
He became a hero to free speech campaigners but a villain to those who thought he had endangered US security and intelligence sources.
The material he released through WikiLeaks included video showing civilians being killed by fire from a US helicopter gunship in Iraq in 2007.
Assange pled guilty in a US Pacific island court to a single count of revealing military secrets.
Under a plea deal, he was sentenced to time already served and allowed to walk free.
The US Justice Department has banned Assange from returning to the United States without permission.
By Garrin Lambley © Agence France-Presse