I worked on the 2024 general election campaign for the former British ambassador to Uzbekistan and journalist and activist, Craig Murray, who ran as a candidate for Member of Parliament in the Blackburn constituency.
On this day last year, news broke that Julian Assange was freed.
Above is an interview Craig did with Sky News from the campaign office.
Craig, a friend of Julian, spent many hours of many days (and years) campaigning for his freedom, along with I and many brilliant activists in London and beyond.
One of the 10 pledges Craig made during his campaign for MP was to free Julian, but it was fulfiled before he never got the chance to put it into action:
Below is a transcript of the interview, with Craig’s words in bold.
Above is one of the panels outside the office. More on how it looked from the outside:
Transcript of the interview:
Let’s return to our developing story this morning, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been released following a plea deal. Joining me now is former diplomat and friend of Julian and Stella Assange, Craig Murray. Hello to you Craig, thank you for joining us here on Sky News. First of all, your reaction to these developments this morning?
Obviously absolutely delighted! We’ve campaigned for this for over a decade and for Julian to be about to be free and to be reunited with his wife, Stella, and his little children, Max and Gabriel, is, you know, it’s an extremely emotional moment for many of us.
Have you been in touch with him at all? Have you had any contact with him since his release, and how is he feeling?
I haven’t been able to speak to him, he’s been in the air mostly. I’ve just spoken to his father, John, who is looking forward to seeing him in Australia. And obviously the whole family is totally elated that finally we’ve got a conclusion to this terrible saga.
Yes, it’s certainly gone on for a number of years hasn’t it, what kind of toll did that take on him?
It’s been very taxing. I mean, it’s no secret that he…being so many years in a maximum security jail…and you know, why somebody who is a journalist who never harmed anybody in his life was locked up in a jail, which houses the worst terrorists that we hold in the U.K…is very difficult for anybody to justify.
So, the conditions there and the fact that he has spent so many years in solitary confinement took a real toll on both his mental and his physical health. But we’re very confident that he’s a resilient man and he will recover and we will get our Julian fully back.
The U.S. has always said that he violated the Espionage Act - very serious charges there. Why do you think he agreed to this plea deal now?
Plainly it’s a coerced plea deal. The danger was spending the rest of his life in a maximum security jail in the United States, and in those circumstances the rest of his life may not have been a very long time.
So, this is coercion. Julian Assange did nothing whatsoever wrong. Julian Assange exposed the war crimes of the United States military and that’s something we should all remember.
And are you aware, is he on his way to Australia right now? Do you know exactly where he’s heading?
I do know exactly where he’s heading and where he’s heading, but I’m afraid I was told that information in confidence and I can’t release it. But he will be in Australia itself quite shortly.
And what do you think is next for him once he gets back home?
Well, I think he will, shortly after his release, after a day or two, he will be speaking to the media and giving a press conference and after that, I believe the plan is — and I certainly hope the plan is — that he will spend quiet time with his wife and family for quite some time.
But Julian Assange is one of the great intellects of our age and we didn’t want him out just because of the injustice done to him, we wanted him out because there is so much more he can contribute, particularly in the world, for example, of artificial intelligence, and further contributions in the world of freedom of information.
He’s an inspirational and highly intellectual man and the world is very, very lucky to have him available again as a resource.
Well, indeed. We’ll be watching closely to see what he does do next. We appreciate your time, Craig Murray, thank you very much again for joining us on Sky News.
Thank you.
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