Wikileaks’ leader Assange set to walk free, lands in Australia

On Wednesday, June 26th, 2024, Wikileaks‘ founder Julian Assange landed in his homeland Australia aboard a charter jet, after a plea deal allowed him to walk free from Belmarsh Prison, London following a London High Court bail order on Monday.

Assange and US officials have been engaged in a legal dispute for the past 14 years because they believe Assange leaked confidential material that might have endangered lives. With Mr. Assange, 52, submitting his plea in a U.S. federal court in Saipan, the capital of the Northern Mariana Islands, the years-long criminal case involving international intrigue unexpectedly came to an extraordinary close.

The US government accused Assange of treason after some of the WikiLeaks publications. It is now anticipated that he will reach a settlement with them, show up in a US court, and enter a guilty plea to a single charge in exchange for the termination of the protracted prosecution against him.

Since Mr. Assange’s home country of Australia is comparatively close to the American commonwealth in the Pacific, it has granted his request to stay outside the US mainland. In a post on X, his website WikiLeaks, which over the years has made public a number of classified US government papers, stated: “JULIAN ASSANGE IS FREE.”

The Case

Assange received a 50-week jail sentence for his activities in the United Kingdom. Beginning in 2019, he was housed in a high-security jail close to London. In the same year, the US filed an extradition request with the UK government and indicted him.

Assange therefore started a protracted legal struggle by appealing against the extradition, to which the US government responded. The primary question was whether extradition to the US would guarantee Assange humane treatment and a fair trial.

Julian Assange entered a plea agreement whereby he admitted guilt to just one of the eighteen charges of conspiracy to obtain and expose material related to national defense, as opposed to the full 18.The case revolved around a significant revelation made by Wikileaks in 2010 when the website published footage of civilian deaths in the Iraqi city of Baghdad taken from a US military aircraft.

Additionally, thousands of secret documents were leaked, allegedly indicating that US forces had murdered hundreds of civilians in unrecorded events throughout the Afghanistan War. The disclosures gained international attention, sparked outrage from all around the world, and prompted the close examination of US participation in overseas conflicts. District Judge Ramona Manglona gave Assange a sentence of five years and two months in the US Pacific territory tribunal. This is the same amount of time he spent battling extradition to the US when he was imprisoned there, and she also declared him free to go.

Now, he has agreed to a deal where he will plead guilty to a “single felony count of illegally obtaining and disclosing national security material in exchange for his release from a British prison”, according to The New York Times.

Further, “Top officials at the Justice Department accepted an agreement with no additional prison time because Mr. Assange had already served longer than most people charged with a similar offense — in this case, over five years in prison in Britain.”

“With this pronouncement, it appears that you will be able to walk out of this courtroom a free man,” the judge said on Wednesday. Additionally, information on a phone conversation between Assange and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese—who has played a key role in winning his release—was provided by his attorney.

Assange told the prime minister that he “saved his life”, Ms. Robinson said, adding: “I don’t think that’s an exaggeration”.

“This is a huge win that Australia stood up to an ally and demanded the return of an Australian citizen,” she said.

Mr. Albanese held his own news conference on Wednesday, saying he is “very pleased” that the case is over, adding that the Wikileaks founder has been through a “considerable ordeal”.

The PM has said in the past that he does not agree with everything Assange has done, but “enough was enough” and it was time for him to be released, making the case a priority.

When asked whether the plea deal may affect US-Australia relations, he said: “We have a very positive relationship with the United States. I regard President Biden as a friend, I regard their relationship as being absolutely central.”

The Welcome Back

In an agreement with Justice Department prosecutors that put an end to a protracted legal drama, Assange pleaded guilty in a Saipan court to a charge of espionage connected to acquiring and publishing US military secrets on Wednesday. This was hours after his jet touched down in Canberra. At Canberra Airport, there were tearful moments as the founder of Wikileaks hugged and kissed his father, with his attorneys there and clearly touched.

When Mr. Assange exited for the plane, his fans at the airport in Canberra applauded him from a distance. He raised his right fist. Clad in the identical suit and tie from his previous court appearance, he gave a warm embrace to his father John Shipton, and wife Stella Assange, who were both waiting for him on the tarmac.

Australian Ambassador to the United States Kevin Rudd and High Commissioner to the United Kingdom Stephen Smith, who was instrumental in securing his release from captivity in Washington and London, escorted him on the flights. Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles stated that the “Assange team” paid for the flights and that his administration assisted in making the transportation possible.

“Julian needs time to recover, to get used to freedom,” Stella Assange said at a news conference shortly after her husband arrived. “You have to understand what he’s been through,” Mrs. Assange said, adding that they need time to “let our family be a family”. The couple married in London’s Belmarsh prison in 2022, and have two children together.

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the hearing was a “welcome development”. Australia used “all appropriate channels” to support a “positive outcome” in the case, he said.

“Regardless of your views about Mr Assange, his case has dragged on for too long. There is nothing to be gained from his continued incarceration and we want him brought home to Australia,” Albanese told reporters in Canberra.

You might also be interested in – India overtakes Australia, Hong Kong, and Japan in data center capacity