After years of legal battles, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has left the UK following a plea deal with US authorities. The deal involves Assange pleading guilty to criminal charges but ensures his freedom.
Advertisement
Assange, 52, was charged with conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defense information. The US has long argued that the WikiLeaks files, which revealed information about the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, endangered lives.
Assange spent the last five years in a British prison, fighting extradition to the US. According to CBS, Assange will spend no time in US custody and will receive credit for his time incarcerated in the UK. He will return to Australia, as confirmed by a letter from the US Justice Department.
WikiLeaks announced on X (formerly Twitter) that Assange left Belmarsh prison on Monday after 1,901 days in a small cell.
He was then released at Stansted Airport and boarded a plane to Australia. Videos shared by WikiLeaks show Assange, dressed in jeans and a blue shirt, being driven to Stansted before boarding the aircraft.
The BBC has not independently verified the video.
His wife, Stella Assange, thanked supporters on social media, acknowledging their long-standing efforts to secure his release.
The deal, which involves Assange pleading guilty to one charge, is expected to be finalized in a court in the Northern Mariana Islands on Wednesday, June 26.
This location, a US commonwealth in the Pacific, is closer to Australia than US federal courts in Hawaii or the continental US.
Advertisement
A spokesperson for the Australian government said the case had “dragged on for too long.” Assange’s attorney, Richard Miller, declined to comment when contacted by CBS. The BBC has also reached out to his US-based lawyer.
Assange and his lawyers have long claimed that the case against him was politically motivated. In April, US President Joe Biden said he was considering a request from Australia to drop the prosecution against Assange.
In May 2024, the UK High Court ruled that Assange could appeal against extradition to the US, allowing him to challenge US assurances about his trial and free speech rights.
US prosecutors initially sought to try Assange on 18 counts, mostly under the Espionage Act, for releasing confidential US military records and diplomatic messages related to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.
WikiLeaks, founded by Assange in 2006, claims to have published over 10 million documents, which the US government described as “one of the largest compromises of classified information in US history.”
In 2010, WikiLeaks published a video from a US military helicopter showing more than a dozen Iraqi civilians, including two Reuters reporters, being killed in Baghdad.
One of Assange’s notable collaborators, US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning, was sentenced to 35 years in prison before her sentence was commuted by then-President Barack Obama in 2017.
Despite the prolonged legal battles, Assange has rarely been seen in public and has reportedly suffered from poor health, including a minor stroke in prison in 2021.
Leave a Reply