World

WikiLeaks founder Assange visits Rome for papal funeral

By AAP Newswire

Apr 27, 2025

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and his family appeared in Rome for Pope Francis' funeral.

Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content

A photo of Assange and his family was shared on X along with a message from his wife Stella.

The message said the family had come to Rome to "express our family's gratitude for the Pope's support during Julian's persecution".

Legal action against Assange started in 2010 after hundreds of thousands of leaked documents about the Afghanistan and Iraq wars were published.

Assange's freedom in June last year followed a court appearance before a judge in the US territory of the Northern Mariana Islands in the Pacific, where he pleaded guilty to a single charge after the United States dropped 17 other espionage charges against him.

About 200,000 people gathered for Pope Francis' funeral on Saturday morning, including world leaders.

"Now Julian is free, we have all come to Rome to express our family's gratitude for the Pope's support during Julian's persecution," WikiLeaks posted on X.

"Our children and I had the honour of meeting Pope Francis in June 2023 to discuss how to free Julian from Belmarsh prison.

"Francis wrote to Julian in prison and even proposed to grant him asylum at the Vatican.' - Stella Assange."

By AAP Newswire

Australian Associated Press