First photo

Julien Assange enjoys life with his family

Julien Assange is now a free man.

(Bild: AP/Rick Rycroft)

Just under a month after the release and return home of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, his wife has posted a photo of the family on social networks for the first time. The picture shows the couple and their two children laughing and relaxing on a beach. 

Assange is wearing a typical Australian hat and holding his wife in his arms. "Family photo!", wrote Stella Assange. The Wikileaks founder was surprisingly released at the end of June after 14 years of legal tug-of-war and returned to Australia.

A US court on the Mariana Island of Saipan - a US foreign territory in the Western Pacific - had previously approved a deal between the Australian and the American judiciary in connection with espionage allegations.

First meeting in freedom
Assange had never met his wife in freedom before arriving in Canberra. Their relationship only began during his time in the Ecuadorian embassy, where he was holed up for seven years. He was arrested there in 2019 and the USA demanded his extradition. In 2022, the couple married in Belmarsh Prison in London.

Stella Assange had expressed concern about her husband's state of health after his return home following years of imprisonment in a tiny cell. She asked that the family be given time and that their privacy be respected. To date, Assange has not made any public statements.

Since 2010, Wikileaks has published secret material from US military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan by whistleblower Chelsea Manning. The USA also accuses Assange of putting the lives of US whistleblowers in danger.