WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in Rome for Pope Francis’s funeral

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and his family were in Rome for Pope Francis’s funeral on Saturday.

A photo of Mr 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 Mr Assange started in 2010 after hundreds of thousands of leaked documents about the Afghanistan and Iraq wars were published.

Mr 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 US dropped 17 other espionage charges against him.

Around 200,000 people gathered for Pope Francis’s funeral on Saturday morning, including world leaders.

WikiLeaks posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, saying: “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.

“Our children and I had the honor 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.”