How to Help Pay Assange Debt (£520,000 Plane Bill and Beyond)
Budget travel was not permitted
As noted here the other day, the good news is that Assange is free, but the bad news is, the US government has saddled him with debt by sending him a "plane bill" with an eye-watering figure: £520,000 (or dollars, but the effort is to raise £520,000).
To be clear, this private flight (charter flight VJ199) was the only thing the US government had agreed to. He was not allowed to board an ordinary or "shared" plane which (for a journey through Bangkok and Saipan, then to Canberra) would likely cost in the region of $1,000 as it's a one-way trip.
"A crowdfunding campaign has raised $61,792 as of the time of publication," it says. That's still leaving them with a debt of close to half a million dollars, but there's this report which names Bitcoin Whale (people in our IRC network are looking into it).
The official figure now stands at £481,175.
"Appeal for donations to cover massive cost of jet and recovery," it says. █