Julian Assange and Maria Corina Machado
Credit: Reuters File Photos
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has filed a criminal complaint in Sweden against the Nobel Foundation accusing it of serious economic crimes and facilitating war crimes and sought halting payments to Venezuelan Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
Assange has argued that Machado's public support for US President Donald Trump's military actions against Venezuela runs counter to the core principles of the Peace Prize.
In a statement shared by WikiLeaks on X, the organisation said Assange is attempting to prevent the Nobel Foundation from releasing $1.18 million that Machado is set to receive as part of the award, stating that her prior and ongoing actions categorically exclude her from the criteria set out in Alfred Nobel's will.
The complaint, submitted simultaneously to the Swedish Economic Crime Authority (Ekobrottsmyndigheten) and the Swedish War Crimes Unit (Krigsbrottsenheten), states that the suspects, including Nobel Foundation Chair Astrid Söderbergh Widding and Executive Director Hanna Stjärne, converted “an instrument of peace into an instrument of war,” through suspected “serious criminality” including, breach of trust, gross misappropriation, conspiracy, and facilitation of war crimes.
The complaint cites Alfred Nobel's 1895 will stipulates that the peace prize be given 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.”
Assange argues that 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”.
The complaint states that “Machado has continued to incite the Trump Administration to pursue its escalatory path”, including by entering into a conspiracy to give the U.S. administration access to $1.7 trillion in oil reserves and other natural resources through privatisation once Nicolás Maduro Moros, Venezuelan President, is ousted.
“Using her elevated position as the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, Machado may well have tipped the balance in favour of war, facilitated by the named suspects,” Assange states in the criminal complaint.
List of evidence
The complaint lists evidence of this incitement of US military intervention, as well as praising Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's conduct in Gaza.
The complaint that Nobel funds awarded to Machado could be "diverted from their charitable purpose to facilitate aggression, crimes against humanity, and war crimes."
Assange argues that, in such a scenario, Sweden could be in violation of its obligations under Article 25(3)(c) of the Rome Statute, which holds that anyone who "aids, abets, or otherwise assists" in the commission of war crimes may be prosecuted by the International Criminal Court.
"... 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," according to the statement shared by WikiLeaks.
“Alfred Nobel's endowment for peace cannot be spent on the promotion of war,” Assange states. The accused have concrete legal obligations because they are tasked with “ensuring the fulfillment of the intended purpose of Alfred Nobel’s will, that is, to end wars and war crimes, and not to enable them.”
Assange notes that the members of the Nobel Foundation have previously exercised their supervisory authority over the prizes and their disbursements by withholding Literature Prize disbursements in 2018. “Failure to intervene here, despite U.S. war crimes off the Venezuelan coast and Machado’s key role in furthering aggression” incurs criminal liability.
Trump intensifies actions against Venezuela
The complaint against the Nobel Foundation has come as Trump has intensified his actions against Venezuela.
On Tuesday night, he announced a "total and complete blockade" of all "sanctioned oil tankers" attempting to enter or leave the country.
"Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America," Trump wrote in a socila media post. "It will only get bigger, and the shock to them will be like nothing they have ever seen before," he said