WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was released on Wednesday by a court on the US Pacific island of Saipan after being found guilty of violating US espionage laws. Under this agreement, Assange will be able to return to Australia.
During the three-hour hearing, Assange pleaded guilty to one criminal count of conspiring to obtain and disclose classified US national defense documents, but said he believed the Constitution’s First Amendment, which protects freedom of speech, protected his activities.
“While working as a journalist I encouraged my source to provide information that was classified so that the information could be published,” he told the court.
“I believed the First Amendment protected that activity, but I admit it was … a violation of the Espionage Statute.”
Chief U.S. District Judge Ramona V. Manglona accepted his guilty plea and released him based on the time already served in a British prison.
According to the flight log, Assange, 52, will depart Saipan on a private jet shortly after noon local time (0200 GMT), accompanied by Australia’s ambassadors to the US and the UK. He will then fly to Canberra, where he will land just before 7pm (0900 GMT).
Assange had agreed to plead guilty in one criminal case, according to documents filed in the US District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands.
Prosecutors said the U.S. territory in the Western Pacific was chosen because he opposed traveling to mainland U.S. territory and because it is close to Australia.
Dozens of media personnel from around the world attended the hearing, with even more gathering outside the courtroom to cover the proceedings. The media was not allowed inside the courtroom to film the hearing.
“I’m watching this and thinking how overwhelmed his senses must be walking through throngs of press after years of oppression and the confines of the high-security Belmarsh prison,” Stella Assange, the WikiLeaks founder’s wife, said on the social media platform X.
Long saga
Australia-born Assange spent more than five years in a high-security prison in Britain and seven years in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, during which time he fought sex offence charges in Sweden and fought extradition to the United States, where he faces 18 criminal charges.
Assange’s supporters see him as a victim because he has exposed US wrongdoings and possible crimes, including in the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. Washington has said the release of secret documents puts people’s lives at risk.
The Australian Government has been advocating for his release and has raised the issue with the US on a number of occasions.
“This is not an incident that happened in the last 24 hours,” Premier Anthony Albanese said at a news conference on Wednesday.
“This is something that has been thought through, patiently considered, and carefully worked through, and that is the way Australia behaves.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
