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Comment by skilled | Hacker News Reader

If you care about this news and you are able to do this financially, consider supporting Julian's fee for having have had to take a private plane for this entire process:

> Julian Assange has embarked on flight VJ199 to Saipan. If all goes well it will bring him to freedom in Australia. But his travel to freedom comes at a massive cost: he will owe USD 520,000 which he is obligated to pay back to the Australian government for the charter flight. He was not permitted to fly commercial airlines or routes to Saipan and onward to Australia.

Links:

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/free-julian-assange

https://x.com/Stella_Assange/status/1805573781303308326

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>He was not permitted to fly commercial airlines or routes to Saipan and onward to Australia.

Not permitted by who, and on what basis?

Presumably either the US or UK as part of his plea deal or bail conditions. Maybe some form of house arrest where he’s not to be in public.

I would bet it is Saipan local goverment, they probably don't have (or dont want to expend) the resources to secure him.

Once he was tried, convicted, sentenced and released in Saipan there can be no possible basis for restricting the mode of travel to "PJ or better".

As an Australian citizen and taxpayer, I would ask that our government foots that $520k bill, and that they deduct it from the blank cheque being offered to (our?!) King Charles to pay all expenses for his planned visit down under later this year. I'm no accountant, but if my calculations are correct, "black hole of money" - $520k = "still a black hole of money, she'll be right".

How much of that price is real, and how much of it is grift?

That depends how dangerous you want air travel to be. The world is currently spending way too much on air travel security, the number of deaths is too low compared to automobile travel.

A few searches for charter flights from England to Australia give figures roughly around this amount.

This man spends almost five and a half years in prison fighting for press freedom and now you think he is suddenly a grifter?

What planet do you live on or what U.S.Intel agency do you work for?

I don't think they're accusing Assange of the grift here.

OP is implying government or its contractors is the one grifting, not Assange . Basically forcing a large bill on a person who has no choice but to accept .

It is not grift though, it does cost in that ball park for international private long distance flights in the 10,000+ mile range . Planes that can do this like say gulfstream V would seat 15-20 people , so like 25k per seat , it is not that much more expensive than a first class ticket cost wise if you think about it

I see no indication of that.

not the OP, but I think they meant to imply that the AU government is grifting. It does look like attaching a $520k bill to the man's freedom. Totally not part of the punishment...

If you are going to beg for donations to pay for your private jet then I dont care if you are Mother Teresa, I am going to wonder if you are just grifting.

Wikileaks has $250mil in bitcoin, they could chip in a bit surely?

With how much the AU gov loves to waste our tax money on useless crappy programs, this would be the one instance where I would wholeheartedly support giving the $500k of tax money away.

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