"Julian Assange is free": A deal with the US will release the founder of Wikileaks.
After decades of resisting US extradition, Assange will finally admit guilt to a single charge of espionage and return home to Australia.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange boards a plane at a location indicated as London, UK, in this still picture from footage broadcast JUNE 25, 2024
After entering a guilty plea to a single charge of breaking American espionage law, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was released from prison in the United Kingdom and is scheduled to return home to Australia. According to a petition in the US District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands, Assange, 52, will enter a guilty plea to one count of conspiring to obtain and distribute confidential US national defence documents. On Monday, he was allowed to leave the high-security Belmarsh jail in the United Kingdom and was driven to the airport for his departure. At 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday (23:00 GMT on Tuesday), Assange will appear in court in the US territory of Saipan, where he will be sentenced to 62 months of time already served.
In a statement published on X, Wikileaks declared that Julian Assange was now free. "On June 24, in the morning, he departed Belmarsh Maximum Security Prison, having been incarcerated there for 1901 days. After being granted bail by the London High Court, he was freed in the afternoon and boarded a plane to leave the United Kingdom. Assange was seen signing a paperwork before boarding a private jet in a video that Wikileaks put on X. He was wearing pants and a blue shirt.
The Wikileaks statement also mentioned the hearing in Saipan and said he would be heading back to Australia after it. Stella, his wife, posted on X, saying, "Julian is free!!!!" "We are incredibly grateful to YOU – yes, YOU – for your years-long mobilisation to make this possible. Words cannot explain how much we appreciate you. I'm grateful. Thank you, I appreciate it.
With the establishment of Wikileaks in 2006, Assange gained notoriety by establishing an internet forum for anonymous submission of secret documents and videos by whistleblowers. The platform became more well-known after footage of a US Apache helicopter attack in Baghdad in 2010 revealed hundreds of thousands of classified US documents about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, along with a treasure trove of diplomatic cables. The attack claimed the lives of twelve people, including two journalists.
"Making the powerful answerable"
Although Wikileaks released information on other nations, it was the US, under the previous US President Donald Trump's administration, who chose to accuse Julian with 17 charges of violating the Espionage Act in 2019. He was accused by US attorneys of plotting with former army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning, who was sentenced to seven years in jail after disclosing documents to WikiLeaks. In 2017, US President Barack Obama commuted her sentence, resulting in her release.
The accusations caused a stir, with supporters of Assange claiming that he shouldn't have been charged with anything that is typically used against government workers who steal or leak information because he is the publisher and main editor of Wikileaks.
Advocates for press freedom countered that Assange's criminal charges were a threat to free expression. In a statement announcing the plea agreement, Wikileaks claimed to have "published groundbreaking stories of government corruption and human rights abuses, holding the powerful accountable for their actions." Julian paid a heavy price as editor-in-chief for these values and the public's access to information. We are grateful to everyone who supported us, battled for us, and remained unwaveringly dedicated to the cause of his liberation as he heads back to Australia.
2010 saw Assange's initial arrest in London pursuant to a Swedish warrant alleging he had sexual assaulted someone. at 2012, a judge decided that Assange may be extradited to Sweden for trial, therefore he took sanctuary at Ecuador's London Embassy while he was granted bail pending the extradition proceedings. Before Swedish police dropped the rape charges against him, he lived in the little embassy for the next seven years. Later, UK police detained him on suspicion of violating his bail terms. While the US extradition case was being heard by the courts, Assange was being detained in a UK prison. The plea agreement announced on Monday coincides with growing pressure on US President Joe Biden to end Assange's protracted legal battle.
Supporters of Assange began to believe that his ordeal may come to an end when the Australian government submitted a formal request in February, and Biden responded by saying he would take it into consideration. Assange's case had "dragged on for too long and there is nothing to be gained by his continued incarceration," according to the Australian government at the time. In response to reports of the plea agreement, an Australian government spokesman said it was "not appropriate to provide further comment" until the proceedings were over. Albanese, the prime minister, has been explicit. The spokesperson stated, "There is nothing to be gained by Mr. Assange's continued incarceration; his case has dragged on for too long."
