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Julian Assange, 52, has been released from a British prison and is anticipated to plead guilty to a US espionage charge, facilitating his return to Australia. Assange agreed to plead guilty to a single count of conspiring to obtain and disclose classified US national defense documents, as detailed in filings with the US District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands.
On Monday evening, WikiLeaks shared a video of Assange boarding a flight at London’s Stansted airport. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese confirmed Assange’s departure from the UK, noting that the chartered flight, VJT199, later refueled in Bangkok. Assange is reportedly traveling to a hearing on the island of Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands, where he will be sentenced at 9 am local time on Wednesday (11 pm GMT on Tuesday). Australian High Commissioner to the UK, Stephen Smith, is accompanying him.
“Regardless of the views that people have about Julian Assange and his activities, the case has dragged on for too long, there is nothing to be gained by his continued incarceration and we want him brought home to Australia,” Albanese stated on Tuesday.
The plea deal, pending judicial approval, could credit Assange for the five years he has already served, resulting in no additional jail time. A senior Justice Department official, in a letter to a federal judge, cited Saipan’s proximity to Australia as the reason for the hearing location. Following the sentencing, Assange is expected to travel to Australia.
According to WikiLeaks, Assange left Belmarsh prison on Monday morning after 1,901 days of captivity in a 2x3 meter cell, isolated 23 hours a day. Assange’s wife, Stella, confirmed his release on social media, expressing immense gratitude to supporters.
In the video posted by WikiLeaks, Assange appears healthy, dressed in a shirt and jeans, with his white hair cut short as he ascends the plane’s stairs. Assange’s mother, Christine, welcomed the development, saying, “I am grateful my son’s ordeal is finally coming to an end.”
The plea agreement follows months of deliberation, with US President Joe Biden considering Australia’s request to drop the prosecution. WikiLeaks’ 2010 release of classified US military documents from the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, along with diplomatic cables, led to Assange’s indictment during the Trump administration. The documents were leaked by Chelsea Manning, a former US military intelligence analyst prosecuted under the Espionage Act.
Press freedom advocates have argued that Assange’s prosecution threatens free speech. Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, remarked that the plea deal avoided a full-on prosecution but warned that the outcome could “cast a long shadow over the most important kinds of journalism, not just in this country but around the world.” Jaffer added, “This deal contemplates that Assange will have served five years in prison for activities that journalists engage in every day.”
Conversely, former US Vice President Mike Pence criticized the deal as a “miscarriage of justice,” stating, “There should be no plea deals to avoid prison for anyone that endangers the security of our military or the national security of the United States. Ever.”
Assange was first arrested in Britain in 2010 on a European arrest warrant from Sweden over sex-crime allegations, which were later dropped. He sought asylum in Ecuador’s embassy for seven years to avoid extradition to Sweden. In 2019, Assange was forcibly removed from the embassy and jailed for skipping bail, subsequently spending time in Belmarsh while contesting US extradition.
While in Belmarsh, Assange married his partner Stella, with whom he has two children born during his time in the Ecuadorian embassy. Manning, sentenced to 35 years for leaking documents to WikiLeaks, had her sentence commuted by President Barack Obama in 2017 after serving about seven years.
By fLEXI tEAM
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