WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is expected to plead guilty to violating the US Espionage Act on Wednesday in a deal that will free him and allow him to return home to Australia after a 14-year British legal odyssey.
Assange was released from prison on Monday and left Britain, WikiLeaks said, as he reached a landmark deal with US authorities.
“Julian Assange is free,” wrote WikiLeaks on the X of its founder, who was detained in Britain for five years as he fought extradition to the United States, which sought to prosecute him for leaking military secrets.
He agreed to plead guilty to a single charge of conspiracy to obtain and disseminate national defense information, according to a document filed in a court in the Pacific Northern Mariana Islands.
Assange is expected to appear in the US on Wednesday morning local time.
He is expected to be sentenced to 62 months in prison, including the five years and two months he spent in prison in Britain. That means he could return to his native Australia.
The Australian government responded that Assange’s case had “dragged on for too long” and his continued imprisonment “could not gain anything”.
The publisher, now 52, was wanted by Washington over the release of hundreds of thousands of classified US documents dating back to 2010 as head of whistleblowing website WikiLeaks.
During his ordeal, Assange became a hero to free-speech campaigners around the world and a villain to those who believed he was endangering America’s national security and intelligence resources by leaking secrets.
US authorities wanted to put Assange on trial for leaking military secrets about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The plea deal is likely to end Assange’s nearly 14-year legal drama.
Assange was indicted by a US federal grand jury in 2019 on an 18-count indictment stemming from WikiLeaks, which released a series of national security documents.
Stella Assange, the wife of WikiLeaks founder Julian, told Reuters they would seek clemency after he pleaded guilty to violating the US Espionage Act, saying the prosecution was a “very serious problem” for journalists around the world.
“The fact that there is a guilty plea under the Espionage Act in relation to the acquisition and release of national defense information is obviously a very serious issue for journalists and national security journalists in general,” she said.
Australian PM says case ‘has dragged on too long’
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has welcomed a “delicate” plea deal for the WikiLeaks founder, saying the case “has dragged on for too long”.
“The government is certainly aware that Australian citizen Julian Assange has a scheduled trial in the United States,” Albanese told parliament.
“While this is a welcome development, we recognize that these proceedings are critical and sensitive.” According to him, Australia is providing consular assistance to Assange.
Albanese said he had been clear about his position on Assange’s case as opposition leader since he became prime minister in 2022.
“Regardless of the views people have of Mr Assange’s activities, the case has dragged on for far too long, there is nothing to be gained by his continued imprisonment and we want him brought home to Australia,” he said.
“We have engaged and advocated for Australia’s interests through all appropriate channels to promote a positive outcome,” Albanese added.
“I will have to say more when these court proceedings are over, which I hope will be very soon.
The UN welcomes the release
The United Nations hailed Assange’s release from custody in Britain as a “significant step towards a final settlement of this case”.
“We welcome the release of Julian Assange from custody in the United Kingdom,” UN rights office spokeswoman Liz Throssell told AFP, adding that a final plea deal was still pending approval.
“As we have repeatedly noted, this case has raised a number of human rights concerns,” she said.
“The increasingly prolonged detention of Assange has also raised various issues,” Throssell said, adding: “We will continue to monitor developments in the coming days.”
The battle for release
WikiLeaks released a short video of Assange talking to people in what appeared to be an office before boarding a plane.
According to Thai officials, the plane carrying Assange was expected to refuel and resupply in Bangkok before continuing to Saipan, the capital of the Northern Mariana Islands.
Assange’s family expressed deep gratitude for his freedom, including his mother Christine Assange, who said in a statement released by Australian media that she was “grateful that my son’s suffering is finally coming to an end”.
Meanwhile, his wife Stella thanked the activists, writing on social media platform X that “words cannot express our immense gratitude”.
Assange met his wife while hiding in the Ecuadorian embassy in London and then married her in a prison ceremony. They now have two young children.
The announcement of the deal came two weeks before Assange was due to appear in court in Britain to appeal a decision to approve his extradition to the United States.
Assange has been held in Belmarsh maximum security prison in London since April 2019.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange arrives at Westminster Magistrates’ Court after being arrested on April 11, 2019 in London, UK. — Reuters/File
He was arrested after spending seven years in Ecuador’s London embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he faced sexual assault charges that were eventually dropped.
The material he released included a video showing the killing of civilians by gunfire from a US attack helicopter in Iraq in 2007. Two Reuters journalists were among the victims.
The United States has charged Assange under the Espionage Act of 1917. Supporters have warned that this means he could be sentenced to 175 years in prison.
The British government approved his extradition in June 2022. In the latest twist in the saga, two British judges said in May that he could appeal his extradition to the United States.
The subpoena was intended to address the question of whether, as an alien tried in America, he would enjoy the protection of free speech granted by the First Amendment to the US Constitution.
The plea agreement was not entirely unexpected. President Joe Biden has been under increasing pressure to drop the long-running case against Assange.
In February, the Australian government made a formal request to that effect, and Biden said he would consider it, raising hopes among Assange’s supporters that his ordeal could end.
Emma Shortis, senior research fellow at The Australia Institute think tank, told AFP that both Canberra and Washington “recognize that this has to stop”. “There was no way it wasn’t going to be a problem for the (US-Australian) alliance,” Shortis said.
