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South Africa Stella Assange is an international human rights lawyer known for her advocacy, particularly in the defense of her husband, Julian Assange.
Stella Assange (then Stella Moris) served as a lawyer for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, joining his international legal team in 2011. This collaboration involved efforts to prevent his extradition and addressed legal challenges related to the release of classified information. She actively campaigned for his freedom and served as a public face for his legal defense.
Stella Assange participated in the Rototom Sunsplash Social Forum, a cultural event, alongside activist Helena Maleno. Their presence brought discussions on human rights struggles to the forum's audience.
Stella Assange has been featured in and collaborated with The Guardian, an influential news organization. She provided significant interviews and coverage regarding her personal life with Julian Assange and her advocacy efforts for his case, specifically discussing their secret family and the legal challenges faced.
Stella Assange has authored various articles for New Internationalist, an independent publisher and magazine focused on social and environmental justice issues. This collaboration highlights her engagement with international advocacy and journalism.
Sara González Devant, known professionally as Stella Assange, was born on November 20, 1983, in Johannesburg, South Africa. Her parents, a Spanish mother and a Swedish father of Cuban heritage, were involved in the Medu Art Ensemble, an anti-apartheid artist collective. This early exposure to human rights issues and the impact of state actions, such as a raid by the South African Defence Force in 1985 that resulted in the death of a family friend, significantly shaped her perspective. Stella’s early life included living in Botswana, Lesotho, Sweden, and Spain, fostering a multilingual and international outlook. She pursued a comprehensive education, earning a law and politics degree from SOAS University of London, an MSc in refugee law from the University of Oxford, and an LLM in public international law from Complutense University of Madrid.
Stella Assange’s professional career has centered on international human rights law. Her most prominent work began in 2011 when she joined Julian Assange’s legal team to prevent his extradition to Sweden. Her efforts contributed to the successful delay and eventual dropping of these legal procedures. For enhanced security while working on this high-profile case, she changed her name to Stella Moris in 2012. She continued to serve on Julian Assange’s legal team throughout his period of asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London from 2012 to 2019, and subsequently during his incarceration at Belmarsh Prison from 2019 to 2024. Her proficiency in Swedish and Spanish proved essential for communication with authorities in both countries. Stella Assange has also authored articles for the independent publisher and magazine, “New Internationalist.” She married Julian Assange in 2022 while he was still imprisoned, and they have two children together, both born during his time in the Ecuadorian Embassy.
Over the years, Stella Assange has been a vocal advocate for her husband’s release and for press freedom. Key actions include leading a human chain protest around the Parliament of the United Kingdom in 2022 to demand Julian Assange’s freedom and meeting with Pope Francis in 2023 to discuss her husband’s situation. On June 24, 2024, Stella Assange confirmed Julian Assange’s release following a plea agreement concerning violations of U.S. espionage law.
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