Update
After pleading guilty
Julian Assange is free and on his way to Australia
26.06.2024, 02:32 am
After years in prison, Wikileaks founder Assange is a free man. A US judge accepted his guilty plea and released him. He is now on his way to Canberra, and his lawyer has already announced that Wikileaks’ work will continue.
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is on his way to Australia after being released by a US court on the Mariana Islands island of Saipan. This marks the first time the 52-year-old has returned to his homeland after 14 years of legal wrangling. The chartered Bombardier plane took off from Saipan and is expected to arrive in the capital Canberra in the evening local time.
Assange had previously been acquitted by a court on the US Pacific island of Saipan. Chief US District Judge Ramona V. Manglona accepted his guilty plea and released him because he had already served the time of a possible 62-month prison sentence in a British maximum security prison. “You will be able to leave this courtroom a free man,” the judge said.
During the three-hour hearing, Assange admitted and pleaded guilty to the charge of conspiracy to obtain and distribute secret US government documents. In court, he said he believed that the First Amendment of the US Constitution, which protects freedom of speech, also protected his activities. “In my work as a journalist, I encouraged my insiders to give me information that was considered secret in order to publish it,” he said, adding: “I believed that the First Amendment protected this activity, but I accept that it was a violation of the Espionage Act.”
Assange had previously agreed to plead guilty to this single charge, according to documents from the US District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands. The US territory in the western Pacific was chosen for the hearing because Assange did not want to travel to the US mainland and because it is close to Australia, according to prosecutors.
End of an odyssey
Australian-born Assange spent more than five years in a maximum-security British prison and seven years before that in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, fighting sex crimes charges in Sweden and extradition to the United States, where his lawyers said he faced 18 criminal charges and up to 175 years in prison.
The risk that Assange could take his own life if extradited has also played a role in the years-long legal battle. His supporters see him as a victim because he exposed wrongdoing and possible crimes by the US, including in conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. Washington has claimed that publishing the secret documents puts people’s lives at risk.
The Australian government has been working continuously for Assange’s release and has raised the issue with the United States on several occasions. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said at a press conference that they had worked long, carefully and patiently towards today’s result. “This is not something that has happened in the last 24 hours,” said Albanese. Australian Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles had also previously told ABC television that the government had been working for Assange’s release.
Assange’s lawyer spoke of a “historic day”. “I hope that the fact that we have succeeded today in freeing Julian Assange against all odds and against one of the most powerful governments in the world gives hope to all journalists and publishers imprisoned around the world,” said Australian human rights lawyer Jennifer Robinson outside the court. “We firmly believe that Mr Assange should never have been charged under the Espionage Act and was carrying out an activity that journalists carry out every day,” said his US lawyer Barry Pollack. The work of Wikileaks will continue.