WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange charged by US with 17 new criminal counts
Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assange on Thursday was hit with new federal criminal charges alleging he published secret documents obtained by former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning, some of which included the disclosure of foreigners who were aiding the U.S. military abroad.The charges, contained in an indictment issued in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, were revealed during a press conference held by Department of Justice officials in Washington.
Assange is currently in British custody after having been expelled from Ecuador's embassy in London, where he had lived for nearly seven years.Officials said that Assange's publication of the names of human sources in the Middle East "is alleged to have created imminent risks to the life and liberty" of those individuals.
"This strikes at the heart of the First Amendment and puts all journalists in extreme danger," The Freedom of the Press Foundation said in a tweet Thursday afternoon."Assange is not a journalist," the official told reporters. "No responsible actor, journalist or otherwise, would purposely publish names he or she knew to be confidential sources in warzones."
Assange was arrested on April 7 in London on a U.S.-lodged charge of conspiring to hack a U.S. government computer in 2010.
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