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Assange is Welcome to Return to RT Broadcast - Sputnik and RT Editor-in-Chief

© Sputnik / Alex McNaughton / Go to the mediabankWikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange stands on the balcony of Ecuador Embassy in London
WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange stands on the balcony of Ecuador Embassy in London - Sputnik International, 1920, 25.06.2024
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Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of Sputnik's parent media group Rossiya Segodnya and RT, Told Sputnik Radio that she would love to see the WikiLeaks founder back on air.
Simonyan expressed hope that one day she would be able to talk to Assange again and that he will be able to return to active life.
I hope that he will return to his active life, and I hope that he will return to us [RT] on air. If you remember, before all this happened to him, 12 years ago back in 2012, he hosted an RT program, a beautiful, brilliant program, we will be happy to bring it back,” she noted.
The editor-in-chief also called Assange today’s best journalist and a visionary, and suggested that he should write a book.

On Monday, WikiLeaks said that Assange had been released from prison in the United Kingdom and flown out of the country. Court documents revealed that he is expected to plead guilty to a US espionage charge as part of a plea bargain deal with federal prosecutors. The trial will be held on Wednesday on Saipan island at the District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands, a self-governing commonwealth of the United States.

Placards featuring WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. - Sputnik International, 1920, 25.06.2024
Analysis
Assange Plea Deal Could Leave 'Dent in Press Freedom' Says Whistleblower’s Friend
Commenting on the high-profile court hearing, Simonyan said that once it is over, nothing will change when it comes to free press and freedom of speech — neither in the US nor in the rest of the world.

“No, nothing is going to change, it is a game of politics. At a certain point Biden found it [releasing Assange] necessary to get certain votes. If there was no election [US presidential election], he [Assange] would not have been released,” she stressed.

Assange, an Australian citizen, was arrested and jailed at London's high-security Belmarsh prison in April 2019 on bail breach charges. In the US, he faces prosecution under the Espionage Act for obtaining and disclosing classified information that shed light on war crimes and human rights violations committed by US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. If convicted, Assange could have faced up to 175 years in prison. One of the last means of preventing his transfer to the US may be an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights. Assange lost his previous appeal at the UK High Court last June.

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