Single 8.07 BTC
+0.91%
($496,000) Donations late Tuesday nearly covered the entire goal of Julian Assange’s emergency appeal for the cost of his jet and its recovery costs in a matter of hours.
The donation page includes fiat options through Crowdfunder and GoFundMe, as well as cryptocurrency donations through Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Dash, Zcash, Dogecoin, XRP, and Monero addresses.
According to data from blockchain explorer Mempool, the 8.07 BTC donation is the largest of the 8.1 BTC ($498,000) sent to the appeal via Bitcoin. Donations to other cryptocurrency addresses listed on the page were minimal. However, with an additional $376,000 in fiat donations so far, the goal has been easily surpassed.
“So Assange will arrive in Australia debt-free thanks to the generosity of one Bitcoin whale.” Altana Digital Money Fund CIO Alistair Milne posted on X
Asanji’s urgent appeal
The Free Assange campaign and his wife, Stella Assange, launched an emergency call on Tuesday morning as the WikiLeaks founder boarded Flight VJ199 to Saipan, the capital of the remote Pacific island of the Northern Mariana Islands (a US territory), after being released from prison in the UK. An appeal was issued.
“Julian Assange boarded flight VJT199 to Saipan. If all goes well, he will be free in Australia. But his journey to freedom comes at a great cost. He owes $520,000 and must repay the Australian government for the cost of his charter flights. He was not permitted to fly on commercial airlines or routes to Australia via Saipan,” the appeal states.
“Furthermore, after 14 years in custody, including five years in a maximum security prison, Julian’s health is in dire need of restoration. We are launching an urgent appeal seeking donations to help him repay his flight debt and significant funds to ensure his recovery, wellbeing and safety upon arrival. “Every contribution counts,” he adds.
Assange pleaded guilty to one charge in an island court on Wednesday and was sentenced to 62 months in prison, citing time already spent in prison, Bloomberg reported.
Assange later returned to Australia a free man on Wednesday morning via a chartered plane, ending a years-long legal battle.
Asanji accused of being a spy
Assange’s case involves accusations of espionage against the U.S. government following the release by WikiLeaks of a large cache of documents detailing alleged war crimes committed by U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The documents provided to WikiLeaks came from whistleblower Chelsea Manning, who was working as a U.S. Army intelligence analyst in Iraq at the time.
In 2019, the U.S. Department of Justice filed multiple indictments against the WikiLeaks founder under the U.S. Espionage Act. If he is convicted of these charges, the theoretical maximum sentence he could receive would be over 170 years.
Assange was released from Belmarsh Prison in England after more than five years after signing a plea agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice and admitting to one of 18 crimes.
“You stand before me to be sentenced in this criminal case,” Judge Manglona told the court on Wednesday, according to Stella Assange. “I would like to note the following: Timing is important. If this case had come before me around 2012, I would not know what I know now, which is that you spent a period of time incarcerated in one of the harshest institutions in the UK. I couldn’t have done it.”
Another important finding, the judge said, was that the U.S. government had pointed out that there were no individual victims and that no physical injuries resulted from the dissemination of the information.
“These two facts are very related. “If this wasn’t known yet and it was closer to 2012, I would say I wouldn’t want to take this plea agreement before me,” the judge added, “but it’s 2024… (and) this case has been taken away from me.” It seems to be over. With this declaration, it appears that you will emerge from this court a free man. I hope peace will be restored.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told the Australian Parliament on Wednesday that he was “very pleased” with the outcome of the Assange case, according to Bloomberg.
AssangeDAO token rises
On Tuesday, AssangeDAO’s token (JUSTICE) soared more than 80% after Assange was released from a British prison. However, it is down about 13% over the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko data.
AssangeDAO was founded in February this year with the goal of raising funds to fight for the freedom of the WikiLeaks founder. A member of AssangeDAO said that of the 16,593 ETH it has raised since its inception, AssangeDAO has allocated more than 11,000 ETH, equivalent to $37 million, for legal defense and advocacy.
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