US whistleblower Edward Snowden claimed that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange could be the next to die after John McAfee died in mysterious circumstance earlier this week. Snowden, who has been living in Russia since years, took to Twitter to give his insight on the matter, and gave a warning to fellow whistle blower Julian Assange.

Contents hide
1. Background
2. Details
3. Who is Jullian Assange?
4. What happened with Julian Assange?
5. The Curious Case of John McAfee’s Tattoo

Background

On June 23, antivirus pioneer turned fugitive John McAfee was found dead in his Spanish prison where he was serving time. His death came right after his extradition papers were approved and he would have been sent back to US to face the criminal proceedings for the tax evasion charges he faced. After his death, Edward Snowden, who was granted permanent citizenship in Russia, took to Twitter to give his two cents.

Also Read: John McAfee: Anti-Virus Pioneer turned Fugitive Found Dead in Prison

Details

Directly from Russia, the data privacy advocate Edward Snowden tweeted-

“Europe should not extradite those accused of non-violent crimes to a court system so unfair – and prison system so cruel – those native-born defendants would rather die than become subject to it. Julian Assange could be next.”

Snowden further added-

“Until the system is reformed, a moratorium should remain.”

It should be noted that as of June 25, the tweet remains deleted.

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Who is Jullian Assange?

Jullian Assange is a computer programmer and known largely for being the founder of WikiLeaks – a non-profit organization that publishes whistle blowing articles. The organization was founded in 2006. WikiLeaks’ claim to fame was a 38-minute-video in which US military’s helicopter could be seen firing and in process, killing several Iraqis and two Reuters journalists. The video footage was released in 2010. The leaked footage caused a massive controversy and once again, US’ interventions in Iraq and its avoidable violence towards Iraq and Middle East was called out. In the same year, WikiLeaks in association with major publishing outlets like New York Times, published over 90,000 US Military documents that were related to Afghanistan War. The documents went into details about the civilian casualties, done strikes, Al-Qaeda’s significance in the country, and US’ support to Taliban. Further, Jullian Assange co-founded WikiLeaks also published close to 4,00,000 documents regarding the Iraq War and the leaks was the largest military whistle blowing event where civilian casualties were exposed. After the 2010 leaks, the US approved a full-blown criminal investigation into WikiLeaks and founder Assange.

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What happened with Julian Assange?

The grand jury in the state of Virginia charged Assange with hacking and in 2019, he was charged under the US Espionage Act of 1917, on 17 counts for sourcing, assessing, publishing and distributing US military and diplomatic documents that were classified in nature. After his arrest, Assange was sent to HMP Belmarsh – known as the toughest jail in UK. Considered a flight risk, he is still wanted by the US. In January 2021, a UK court blocked his extradition to US claiming that given his mental health problems, he is at risk of suicide.

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The Curious Case of John McAfee’s Tattoo

After the death of antivirus pioneer Jon McAfee – a tweet, which shows his tattoo – went viral and gave conspiracy theorists another crumb of evidence to latch on. On December 1, 2019, the entrepreneur turned fugitive shared a picture of his own arm where “WHACKED” was tattooed.

Elaborating further, McAfee had written-

“Getting subtle messages from U.S. officials saying, in effect: “We’re coming for you McAfee! We’re going to kill yourself”. I got a tattoo today just in case. If I suicide myself, I didn’t. I was whackd. Check my right arm.”