In what may stand as one of the most audacious legal challenges to a global institution, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has filed a criminal complaint in Sweden accusing the Nobel Foundation of converting its celebrated Peace Prize into an instrument of war.
The complaint, targeting 30 individuals associated with the foundation, seeks to freeze the 11 million Swedish kronor (approximately $1.18 million USD) destined for the 2025 laureate María Corina Machado, a Venezuelan opposition leader who has publicly endorsed a sweeping U.S. military campaign against her own country.
The legal filing, submitted to Sweden’s Economic Crime Authority and War Crimes Unit, argues that by awarding the prize to Machado, foundation officials have committed gross misappropriation of funds and facilitated war crimes, violating both the letter of Alfred Nobel’s will and international law.
“Alfred Nobel’s endowment for peace cannot be spent on the promotion of war,” Assange states in the complaint, asserting that the foundation’s administrators have a fiduciary duty to ensure the prize money serves its intended charitable purpose: to promote fraternity between nations and the reduction of standing armies.
The case hinges on a stark contradiction between the prize’s historic mandate and the recent actions of its recipient.
The will of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish inventor who established the prizes, explicitly directs that the Peace Prize be awarded to the person who has done 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.
Yet, in an interview aired just days ago, Machado offered unwavering praise for President Donald Trump’s aggressive strategy toward Venezuela, which includes severe economic sanctions, the seizure of oil tankers, and a series of deadly naval strikes.
“I absolutely support President Trump’s strategy,” Machado told CBS News, calling him “a champion of freedom in this hemisphere.”
The U.S. military buildup she supports is historic.
President Donald Trump has boasted that “Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest armada ever assembled in the history of South America.”
Assange’s complaint links the Nobel Committee’s decision directly to this escalation, arguing that the prestige of the prize has been exploited to provide a moral justification for war, with the ultimate goal of installing Machado in power to gain access to Venezuela’s vast natural resources.
The document cites Machado’s past statements, including 2014 testimony to the U.S. Congress, in which she declared, “The only path left is the use of force.”
The controversy is amplified by the clandestine, U.S.-aided operation that removed Machado from Venezuela so she could receive the prize.
After nearly a year in hiding, she undertook a perilous boat journey, following the same dangerous migrant routes used by millions of fleeing Venezuelans, eventually arriving in Oslo.
Her dramatic escape, while highlighting the plight of her countrymen, also underscored her alignment with the foreign power orchestrating the pressure campaign against Caracas.
Having left Oslo after the ceremony, she is now reportedly attending to medical needs related to a vertebra fracture sustained during her journey.
Criticism of the award has been widespread and vocal. Twenty-one Norwegian peace organizations declared that “Machado is the opposite of a peace laureate.”
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Adolfo Pérez Esquivel called the choice “a mockery of Alfred Nobel’s will.”
The complaint further alleges potential corruption, pointing to an unresolved scandal in which betting odds on Machado winning surged inexplicably from 3.75 percent to 72.8 percent just hours before the official announcement, allowing insiders to profit handsomely.
Assange’s legal action requests that Swedish authorities immediately freeze the prize money, seize foundation records, and interrogate its leadership, including Chair Astrid Söderbergh Widding and Executive Director Hanna Stjärne.
He warns that failure to intervene would make the foundation complicit, as there is “a real risk that funds derived from Nobel’s endowment have been or will be diverted from their charitable purpose to facilitate aggression, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.”
The lawsuit strikes at the heart of the Nobel institution’s credibility. It asks a simple, devastating question: Can an award created to honor the architects of peace retain its meaning when bestowed upon a champion of armed intervention?
The Swedish courts are now tasked with determining whether the world’s most famous peace prize has, in fact, been weaponized. The outcome will resonate far beyond a courtroom in Stockholm, challenging the very conscience of an institution built to celebrate humanity’s highest humanitarian ideals.
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