"I have returned": Julian Assange reappears on X after more than two years and announces that he will have another child

BarcelonaJulian Assange has reappeared on X after more than two years without posting on his official account. The founder of Wikileaks wrote a brief message there on September 17, "I'm back" [I have returned], accompanied by a photograph of himself in Sydney. His last post dated back to June 28, 2024, shortly after reaching a plea deal with the United States justice system and being set free.

The return to social media comes more than two years after his release from prison. In June 2024, Assange pleaded guilty in the United States to a single charge of conspiracy to obtain and disclose classified information related to national defense. He was sentenced to 62 months in prison, a term he had already served during the years he spent imprisoned in the United Kingdom, and subsequently returned to Australia.

Before the agreement with the United States, Assange had spent nearly seven years as a refugee in the Ecuadorian embassy in London and more than five in Belmarsh prison. In October 2024, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe recognized him as a "political prisoner".

Expecting her fourth child

The reappearance, moreover, comes accompanied by a family announcement. Assange and his wife, Stella Assange, are expecting their third child together, which will be the fourth for the Wikileaks founder. The couple already has two children, Gabriel and Max, born in 2017 and 2019, respectively, and the fourth is expected to be born in October. In fact, Assange has shared a photograph of his pregnant wife with the hashtag "#OctoberSurprise", and has taken the opportunity to thank his followers for their support during the years of legal battle.

A figure close to the Process

Assange's public trajectory was also closely linked to the Catalan independence process. In 2017, he was especially active on social media following the October 1st referendum, and in November of that year, he even offered a 20,000 euro reward for information about the police deployment during the vote. His activity regarding Catalonia coincided with Ecuador's decision to restrict his internet access while he was taking refuge at the embassy in London, a measure that the Ecuadorian government justified precisely because of his political activity on social media.