'Unauthorized autobiography' of Wikileaks founder unveiled
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Xinhua, September 23, 2011
A British publisher on Thursday issued an "unauthorized autobiography" of the founder of the controversial Wikileaks website Julian Assange.
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Julian Assange (R), founder of the website Wikileaks, addresses the press with his lawyer Mark Stephens after the final hearing about whether he will be extradited to Sweden, at the Belmarsh Magistrates' Court in southeastern London, Britain, Feb. 8, 2011. The judge didn't come to a decision after the two-day hearing and one extra session will be held on Feb. 11. [Xinhua] |
Assange became a global figure after he published 250,000 secret United States diplomatic cables on his Wikileaks website, which became a serious embarrassment to the American government.
He was then accused by two women of rape when he was in Sweden. Swedish police said they wanted to question him, and issued a European Arrest Warrant in 2010 for him.
Assange, 40, denies the allegations and surrendered himself to police in London at the end of 2010, and the Swedish authorities applied for his extradition to face questioning.
Assange fought the extradition bid in the English courts, fearing that he could face further extradition from Sweden to the United States where he could face criminal charges related to the publishing of the secret cables, but failed.
He appealed against the extradition ruling in July and a final decision on the case will be made by senior English judges, probably before Christmas.
Assange agreed to cooperate with Edinburgh-based publisher Canongate in publishing an autobiography and had 50 hours of interviews with a ghostwriter between January and March this year, while he was on bail awaiting an outcome of the extradition hearings.
He received a 500,000 pound advance (about 768,000 U.S. dollars) for the book.
Publisher's spokesman Liz Sich told Xinhua Thursday, "It's an unauthorized autobiography -- it is his words. He was contracted to write his autobiography in December; a ghostwriter was assigned to it, approved by the publisher and Julian and an intense amount of work was done in the first three months of 2011. The first draft was delivered on schedule at the end of March. After that there was a hiatus and nothing happened; in June Julian decided he wanted to tear up the contract."
Assange has opposed publication, but Sich said, "It is very much Julian's words, it is written in the first person. He didn't want it to be published but he was in breach of his contract. He couldn't pay the advance back because he had used it to pay his lawyers."
The book is available only in English at the moment, but a Dutch publisher and a Turkish publisher said they would print translations in their languages, and other foreign language editions are also likely.
