Afrasianet - WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange participated in the Cannes Film Festival wearing a T-shirt bearing the names of 4,986 Palestinian children killed in Israeli shelling in the Gaza Strip.
Ahead of the release of a documentary about his life titled The Six Billion Dollar Man, Assange stood alongside his wife, Stella Assange, on the steps of the Palais des Festivals wearing a T-shirt with a large phrase on his back that read: "Stop Israel ," in a move that carried a strong and clear political message.
French newspaper Humanite said the move showed that "Assange's long struggle for truth remains firm and active."
Assange, an Australian journalist and activist, is best known for being the founder of WikiLeaks, a platform that since 2006 has published millions of classified documents, including U.S. military and diplomatic reports, leading to widespread global controversy.
Assange began his career as a programmer and hacker, and was involved in several software projects before founding WikiLeaks. His stated goal was to expose corruption and human rights abuses, and to enable the press to play an effective oversight role over powerful governments and institutions.
The most famous publication of WikiLeaks was in 2010, when it revealed leaked documents related to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Those leaks included a video showing U.S. helicopters killing Iraqi civilians.
In 2012, Assange sought asylum at Ecuador's embassy in London to escape extradition to Sweden on charges of sexual assault, charges he denies and considers politically motivated and ultimately aimed at extraditing him to the United States, where he faced charges of espionage and publishing classified documents.
Assange remained at the embassy for seven years, until diplomatic protection was withdrawn in 2019 and arrested by British police. Since then, he has fought legal battles against his extradition to the United States, where he faces charges under the U.S. Espionage Act that could result in decades in prison.
In June 2024, Assange was released after a legal deal with US authorities, which allowed him to leave without serving a long sentence, to return to public life. He currently continues his political and media activism, and is considered a universal symbol of press freedom and the public's right to access information.