Assange Files Complaint to Block Machado From Nobel

The WikiLeaks founder filed a criminal complaint arguing the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to pro-war Maria Corina Machado of Venezuela violates Swedish law, reports Joe Lauria.

Julian Assange at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on Oct. 1, 2024. (PACE video still)

By Joe Lauria
Special to Consortium News
CN at 30

Julian Assange has filed a criminal complaint in Sweden to block the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize and $1.18 million to Maria Corina Machado, arguing that

“Julian Assange today filed a criminal complaint in Sweden accusing 30 individuals associated with the Nobel Foundation, including its leadership, of committing serious suspected crimes, including the crime of gross misappropriation of funds, facilitation of war crimes and crimes against humanity, and the financing of the crime of aggression,” WikiLeaks said on Wednesday.

“The complaint shows that Alfred Nobel’s 1895 will explicitly mandates that the peace prize go to the individual who during the proceeding year ‘conferred the greatest benefit to humankind’ by doing ‘the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses,’” WikiLeaks said.

Machado is a politician and activist who claims Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro stole the 2024 election from her party’s candidate. She has openly supported U.S. military action against her own country and champions U.S. oil companies seizing Venezuelan oil.

She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Oct. 10 “for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.”

U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced that the U.S. was implementing a naval blockade of oil tankers leaving Venezuela because of his claim that they contain “stolen” American oil that was nationalized in 1976.

In 2014, a World Bank arbitration tribunal ordered Venezuela to pay Exxon Mobil $1.6 billion for the expropriation. Legal proceedings continue.

Assange’s complaint says:

“The political decision of the Norwegian selection committee does not suspend the fiduciary duty of Swedish funds administrators. … Any disbursement contradicting this mandate constitutes misappropriation from the endowment.”

It was submitted to the Swedish Economic Crime Authority (Ekobrottsmyndigheten) and the Swedish War Crimes Unit (Krigsbrottsenheten), WikiLeaks said.

The story of Assange filing the complaint was first reported by The Grayzone.

‘Facilitation of War Crimes’

Assange’s complaint claims the awarding of the prize to Machado converted “an instrument of peace into an instrument of war,” through suspected “serious criminality” including:

“1) Breach of trust, gross misappropriation and conspiracy in relation to the pending 11 million SEK ($1.18 million) disbursement of the Peace prize monies to Maria Corina Machado, whose prior and ongoing actions categorically exclude her from the criteria set out in Alfred Nobel’s will;

2) Facilitation of war crimes, including the crime of aggression and crimes against humanity, breaching Sweden’s obligations under Article 25(3)(c) of the Rome Statute, because the accused are aware of Machado’s incitement and endorsement of the U.S. commission of international crimes, and knew or ought to have known that the disbursement of Nobel monies would contribute to extrajudicial killings of civilians and shipwrecked survivors at sea and are in breach of their obligation to cease disbursements.”

This is only the third foray into the political arena for Assange since he was released from prison in June 2024 in a plea deal with the United States.

Assange was held on remand for five years in a maximum security prison in London awaiting extradition to the U.S. to face charges under the Espionage Act for the alleged crime of publishing secret information that revealed U.S. war crimes and other abuses of power.

His first public appearance after his release was at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on Oct. 1, 2024. He then marched across the Sydney Harbour Bridge on Aug. 3 this year ahead of an estimated 300,000 people to protest Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

Joe Lauria is editor-in-chief of Consortium News and a former U.N. correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, and other newspapers, including The Montreal Gazette, the London Daily Mail and The Star of Johannesburg. He was an investigative reporter for the Sunday Times of London, a financial reporter for Bloomberg News and began his professional work as a 19-year old stringer for The New York Times. He is the author of two books, A Political Odyssey, with Sen. Mike Gravel, foreword by Daniel Ellsberg; and How I Lost By Hillary Clinton, foreword by Julian Assange.

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