Julian Assange’s family is feeling cautiously optimistic about the appointment of Kevin Rudd a Australia’s US ambassador. Rudd has vocally supported the jailed Wikileaks founder despite being humiliated by some of the material he published.
“[I’m] encouraged by the appointment, for sure,” Assange’s brother Gabriel Shipton told Crikey.
Rudd, who starts his new job in Washington early next year, declined to comment on Assange’s case when contacted by Crikey. But his office said his personal views on the matter were summed up in a 2019 letter he wrote to an activist lobbying on Assange’s behalf.
Rudd wrote that he couldn’t see how anyone had been seriously harmed by the information shared by Assange, that it was difficult to say what separated Assange from a journalist publishing secret information, and that the responsibility for keeping information secure rested with governments.
“An effective life sentence is an unacceptable and disproportionate price to pay,” he wrote. “I would therefore oppose his extradition.”
Shipton agreed: “Kevin’s statement is good, particularly on the points that say it is up to the state to secure their secrets and if they can’t it’s their failure.
“Generally his views are in line with most Australians. The hypocrisy of Julian’s persecution — when you have the American whistleblower who leaked this information receiving a commuted sentence and being free since 2017, but the Australian who published the information has been arbitrarily detained for 12 years.”
Assange’s father John Shipton was also positive about Rudd’s appointment: “Kevin Rudd is, from my view, a vigorous, experienced and skilled diplomat. Ambassador Rudd is without doubt fully aware of his prime minister’s public position on Julian’s dire circumstances.”
Rudd’s views clear in 2019 letter
Rudd’s 2019 letter was addressed to an activist connected with a Queensland event dubbed “Bring Julian Assange Home”. He wrote to decline an invitation to attend the rally and to explain his position.
He wrote that he, as a former prime minister, was “deeply opposed” to any leaking of classified information and acknowledged the leaking of diplomatic cables to Wikileaks had “caused me some political discomfort at the time”.
“While I hold serious reservations about Mr Assange’s character and his conduct, I nonetheless share some of the concerns that have been raised about his potential extradition to face an effective life sentence, or worse, in the US,” Rudd wrote.
“Judging from the indictment … US prosecutors appear to have levelled no specific allegation that anyone came to serious harm as a consequence of these leaks. If their case is essentially that Mr Assange broke the law by obtaining and disclosing secret information, then I struggle to see what separates him from any journalist who solicits, obtains and publishes such information.”
Assange posted embarrassing info on Rudd
Rudd’s first time as prime minister ended just months before Assange became the subject of a Swedish arrest warrant for alleged rape, which he denied. That same year, Wikileaks began publishing troves of diplomatic correspondence that caused global political shockwaves.
The documents included a brief on a 75-minute lunch Rudd had with then US secretary of state Hillary Clinton, where Rudd gave frank assessments on Australia’s relationship with China and about Beijing’s view of Taiwan and Tibet.
They also included documents that were embarrassing for Rudd, such as a US embassy briefing that said American officials believed he was a “control freak” who wasn’t able to handle foreign affairs properly despite a view of himself as experienced and intellectual.
Assange fights extradition
By the time Rudd was briefly in the Lodge again, in 2013, Assange was holing up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden.
The Swedish rape case was eventually scrapped in 2019 after the Swedish prosecution authority deemed that although the complainant had “submitted a credible and reliable version of events … the evidence has weakened considerably due to the long period of time that [had] elapsed” since the alleged 2010 incident.
Assange was removed from the embassy and detained by UK police in 2019, and has been behind bars ever since. He faces 18 US counts, including a spying allegation. His legal team is seeking to appeal a UK government decision to allow his extradition to the US.
Rudd has tweeted about Assange a handful of times in the past two years, including in June this year, when he called the decision of the UK home secretary to allow the extradition “total hypocrisy”.
