Julian Assange To Be Freed After Plea Deal With US

Julian Assange, 52, will be free to return home to Australia, after agreeing to plead guilty tn a single count of violating the U.S. espionage law.

Wikileaks footage showed Assange leaving the high security Belmarsh prison in London, ending a 14-year ordeal, before heading to the Pacific island of Saipan for the court hearing, The Guardian reported. He has been in prison for five years since 2019.

On pleading guilty to conspiring to obtain and disclose classified U.S. national defense documents, Assange is expected to be sentenced to 62 months, which he has already served in prison. If the court approves his plea, Assange will be freed, facilitating his return to Australia.

According to a Reuters report that quoted U.S. prosecutors, Assange chose Saipan island for the hearing as it was located closer to Australia, and that he did not want the case to be tried in the continental U.S.

Saipan is the capital of the Northern Mariana Islands, which is a U.S. commonwealth in the western Pacific.

Assange came into the limelight after Wikileaks, founded by him, published a series of leaks from US Army intelligence on Afghanistan and Iraq wars, in 2010. Since then, the U.S. has been investigating him and Wikileaks. In 2018, Assange was indicted for criminal conspiracy and charged with committing computer intrusion. In 2019, a U.S. jury added espionage charges against him, and a year later, a new indictment for hacking was filed.

In 2019, he was arrested and lodged at the HM Prison, Belmarsh in London.

Reacting cautiously to the plea deal, Australian Labor MP Julian Hill said, "No one should judge Julian for accepting a deal to get the hell out of there and come home. His health is fragile. Whatever you think of Assange he is an Australian and enough is enough."

Hill credited Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for the relentless pursuit of Assange's case.

"The prime minister deserves enormous personal credit for his judgment and determination, never giving up in pursuing resolution of this case."

A spokesperson for the Australian government stated: "The Australian government continues to provide consular assistance to Mr Assange. Prime Minister Albanese has been clear: Mr Assange's case has dragged on for too long and there is nothing to be gained by his continued incarceration."

Cutting across party lines, Australian parliamentarians had sought ways to secure Assange's release.