WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange spared jail in upcoming US plea trade | julian assange information

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been released from prison in Britain and is headed to Australia to plead guilty to a single charge of violating US spying regulations.

Assange, 52, will plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to obtain and disclose classified US national defense documents, according to a filing in the United States District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands.

He was released from the United Kingdom’s high-security Belmarsh prison on Monday and brought to the airport, from where he boarded a flight abroad. Assange will appear in a court in the US Pacific territory of Saipan at 9am on Wednesday (23:00 GMT on Tuesday), where he will be sentenced to 62 months in prison.

“Julian Assange is free,” WikiLeaks said in a comment on X.

“After spending 1901 days there, he left Belmarsh maximum security prison on the morning of June 24. He was granted bail by the High Court in London and released during the afternoon at Stansted Airport, where he boarded a plane and flew to the UK.

A video posted on X via WikiLeaks shows Assange signing a report before boarding a private plane wearing a blue blouse and jeans.

WikiLeaks’ overview of the hearing in Saipan states that he will return to Australia after the hearing.

The plane carrying Assange landed in Bangkok on Tuesday to refuel before flying the WikiLeaks founder to the United States.

Julian Assange’s wife Stella said she was “excited” and that it was “incredible” that her husband was ready to be released.

“I am very happy,” he said, speaking from Australia on Tuesday.

“Once the judge signs off he will be a free man and that will happen sometime tomorrow.”

Assange rose to prominence in 2006 with the launch of WikiLeaks, which developed a web-based whistleblower platform for people to anonymously post classified subject matter such as documents and films.

Images of a US Apache helicopter strike in Baghdad that killed several people, including two militants, raised the platform’s profile, along with the 2010 declassification of thousands of classified US documents on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as stores of diplomatic cables. strengthened its popularity.

‘Holding powerful people accountable’

WikiLeaks published content about many countries, but it was certainly the United States, under the leadership of former President Donald Trump, that decided to prosecute them in 2019 on 17 counts of violating the espionage business .

US legal professionals had argued that he conspired with Chelsea Manning, a former military intelligence analyst who spent seven years in prison for leaking material to WikiLeaks. He was released in 2017 when President Barack Obama commuted his sentence.

The allegations ended in outrage, with Assange’s supporters arguing that, as the author and editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks, he would not normally have faced charges against executive staffers who borrow or disseminate knowledge. .

Meanwhile, press sovereignty advocates argued that criminally charging Assange would amount to blackmail of free speech.

“WikiLeaks published unprecedented stories of government corruption and human rights abuses, holding powerful people accountable for their actions,” WikiLeaks said in its statement announcing the plea trade.

“As editor-in-chief, Julian paid a heavy price for these principles and the people’s right to know. As he returns to Australia, we thank all those who stood with us, fought for us and remained fully committed to the fight for his freedom.”

Assange was first arrested in London in 2010 on a Swedish warrant on sexual assault charges. After being granted bail pending his extradition case, Assange took refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London in 2012 after a court ruled that he could be extradited to Sweden for trial.

He spent the next seven years in modest confinement – ​​during which Swedish police withdrew rape charges – before United Kingdom police arrested him for breaching bail conditions. Assange was being held in a United Kingdom prison pending his extradition case to the United States.

Monday’s petition comes as US President Joe Biden is given the power to end the long-running case against Assange.

In February, Australia’s government made a legal request to that effect and Biden said he would honor it, raising hopes among Assange supporters that his ordeal may be over. Shortly afterwards, the Australian executive noted that Assange’s case “has dragged on for too long”.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Tuesday he would seek to reintroduce Assange to Australia as soon as possible.

“Whatever people’s views about Mr Assange (and) his activities, the case has dragged on for too long,” Albanese told parliament.

“Nothing is going to be achieved by continuing to keep him in captivity and we want him to be repatriated to Australia.”

‘The power of quiet diplomacy’

Meanwhile, Assange’s mother Christine said in a statement to Australian media that she was grateful her son’s “ordeal is finally coming to an end”.

“This shows the importance and power of quiet diplomacy,” he said in an observation carried by community broadcaster ABC and alternative media.

Jody Ginsburg, chief executive of the Committee to Protect Reporters, told Al Jazeera that she was “delighted” by the news of Assange’s expected demotion.

“If Julian were extradited to the US and prosecuted under the Espionage Act… it would have serious implications globally for journalists who seek information, classified documents, in the public interest, and who then release them in the public interest.” Publish,” he said. Untouched York.

“Of course, remember that Julian is not a US citizen. He is an Australian citizen and if he had been brought to the US and tried, it could have meant that, like WikiLeaks, journalists anywhere else would have been trying to publish information about human rights abuses. So they could have been harassed and prosecuted just like in America. “Did it with Julian.”

He said the exchange of appeals to Biden leadership was a way to save face, especially amid the high power push to remove Assange from Australia.

“They (the Biden administration) have a guilty plea on one criminal charge, but only on one criminal charge, and not on the 18 criminal charges for which he was being tried and for which he faces a total of 175 years in prison. Could have to face. And Julian has been released to his home country and will now be able to spend time with his family and his loved ones.

In Australia, legislators fighting for Assange’s sovereignty also welcomed news of his expected return.

Former Deputy Prime Minister, Barnaby Joyce, told the ABC that it was very encouraging to see Assange on an airplane, but he cautioned that the “finish line” had not yet been reached.

The National Party MLA said he was “pleased” that the result would set “an incredibly strong precedent” that Australians should not be accused by other countries of alleged crimes that were not committed on their soil. Are.

“(Extraterritoriality) is a principle, and if you let it end for one it ends for all,” he was quoted as saying.

Australian Labor senator David Shoebridge said he was looking forward to welcoming Assange back home.

“Let’s be clear, Julian Assange should never have been charged with espionage in the first place or should have taken this deal,” Shoebridge said.

“(He) has spent years in prison for showing the world the horrors of the US war in Iraq and the complicity of governments like Australia, and that’s why he has been punished.”