Exonerate Assange.

The trial quite literally continues for Julian Assange (pictured). Following his release from London's Ecuadorian Embassy last month after almost seven years, the Australian WikiLeaks co-founder was arrested on Thursday and sent to HM Prison Belmarsh. Now the US has indicted Assange on 17 counts of espionage in conjuction with former US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning (below).

Now, nobody has to tell me that blowing the whistle is a very fraught pathway. Documents are classified usually for the sake of national security, which affects literally every citizen. But very often, the people who commit the acts mentioned in them deserve to be publicly brought to justice and held to account for their crimes. It is astonishing yet utterly unsurprising to me how two US governments now, and one of them Democratic, have prosecuted against Assange and WikiLeaks but effectively let these individuals walk free.

Nonetheless, Assange is also a fugitive from Sweden due to several allegations of sexual assault, and if he is guilty in that context I sincerely think he should be convicted. Conduct of that nature should always be punished and never excused.

But regardless, I do not believe he should be imprisoned for his work with WikiLeaks or Manning. Love or hate them, they are unquestionably brave, and since both have now served considerable time either in prison or under house arrest they have already been punished for their actions. Do they need any more? This is about safe-guarding freedom of speech, and those keeping them locked up are committing the same human rights violations they are trying to keep under wraps. It's pretty simple: if governments, military personnel and other national authorities don't want their crimes to be exposed, they should never commit them to start with.