Wikileaks founder Julian Assange made a rare public appearance on Saturday, attending the funeral of Pope Francis at St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City alongside his wife Stella and their children.
Assange’s presence at the funeral carried deep personal significance. Pope Francis had been a vocal supporter of Assange’s cause during his long ordeal in Belmarsh Prison, even proposing asylum within the Vatican walls at one point.
“Now that Julian is free, we have come to Rome to express our family’s gratitude for the Pope’s support during Julian’s persecution,” Stella Assange said in a heartfelt statement shared via the official Wikileaks account. “Our children and I had the honor of meeting Pope Francis in June 2023 to discuss how to free Julian from Belmarsh. Francis wrote to Julian in prison and even proposed to grant him asylum at the Vatican.”
The funeral, held before a massive crowd estimated between 150,000 and 170,000 mourners, drew global dignitaries, including U.S. President Donald Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and Britain’s Prince William.
Assange, who was freed from Belmarsh Prison last year after reaching a plea agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice, had spent over a decade fighting extradition. First confined within London’s Ecuadorian Embassy under a tenuous political asylum, he later endured five years in the high-security Belmarsh facility.
Pope Francis’s personal intervention had come at a critical time. In March 2021, the pontiff sent Assange a private letter, delivered by the prison chaplain on Palm Sunday, offering words of comfort. Stella Assange shared at the time that she was deeply moved by the outpouring of support from Catholics and other Christian advocates who championed Julian’s freedom.
Later, on June 30, 2023, the Pope welcomed Stella and the couple’s sons, Gabriel and Max, to a private audience at the Vatican—a meeting that Stella described as a powerful “ongoing show of support for our family’s plight.”
Assange’s legal battles stemmed from his role in publishing classified documents—known as the Iraq and Afghan War Logs—provided by whistleblower Chelsea Manning. He faced potential life imprisonment under charges brought through the U.S. Espionage Act.
However, under the 2024 plea deal, Assange pleaded guilty to “Conspiracy To Obtain and Disclose National Defense Information,” receiving a 62-month sentence that was satisfied by time served, allowing him to return home to Australia.
His attendance at Pope Francis’s funeral, a deeply symbolic moment, marked not just the closing of a painful chapter in his life but also an enduring gesture of gratitude toward the spiritual leader who had stood with him during his darkest hours.
