Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has reportedly struck a plead deal with the U.S. Justice Department, walking free from the British prison that has been his home for the last five years to return to Australia.
US prosecutors have filed criminal paperwork against the 52-year-old in the US District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands, which is typically a preliminary step before a plea deal is reached. The filings are said to outline a single criminal count of conspiring to obtain and disclose classified US national defence documents. Assange is expected to be sentenced on Wednesday at a hearing on the island of Saipan to 62 months’ of time already served.
“Julian Assange is free. He left Belmarsh maximum security prison on the morning of 24 June, after having spent 1901 days there. He was granted bail by the High Court in London and was released at Stansted airport during the afternoon, where he boarded a plane and departed the UK,” Wikileaks said in a post to Twitter.
“This is the result of a global campaign that spanned grass-roots organisers, press freedom campaigners, legislators and leaders from across the political spectrum, all the way to the United Nations. This created the space for a long period of negotiations with the US Department of Justice, leading to a deal that has not yet been formally finalised. We will provide more information as soon as possible”.
Wikileaks confirmed that after more than five years in a cell, isolated 23 hours a day, Assange will soon reunite with his wife, Stella, and their children, who have only known their father from behind bars. “As he returns to Australia, we thank all who stood by us, fought for us, and remained utterly committed in the fight for his freedom”.
“WikiLeaks published groundbreaking stories of government corruption and human rights abuses, holding the powerful accountable for their actions. As editor-in-chief, Julian paid severely for these principles and for the people’s right to know”.
Assange faces charges linked to one of the largest publications of classified information in US history, taking place back in 2010. He allegedly conspired with Chelsea Manning, a military intelligence analyst, to disclose tens of thousands of Afghan war activity reports, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi war reports, State Department cables, and Guantanamo Bay detainee assessments via WikiLeaks.
This trove of over 700,000 documents included a 2007 video showing a US Apache helicopter attacking suspected insurgents in Iraq, resulting in twelve deaths, including two Reuters journalists.
The charges ignited a global outcry from Assange’s supporters, who argue that as a publisher, he should not be prosecuted under laws typically applied to government employees who leak classified information. Many advocates for press freedom have condemned the charges, viewing them as a threat to free speech.
Assange was initially arrested in the UK in 2010 due to a European arrest warrant over Swedish sex crime charges, which were later dropped. He sought refuge in Ecuador’s embassy for seven years to avoid extradition to Sweden.
In 2019, he was forcibly removed from the embassy (see video below), captured in widely publicised footage, and jailed for bail violation.
Since then, he has been held in London’s high-security Belmarsh prison, contesting extradition to the US for nearly five years.