Wikileaks founder Julian Assange wants to plead guilty as part of an agreement with the US Department of Justice. Following his guilty plea and conviction on espionage charges, he should be allowed to return to his homeland of Australia, according to a letter from the Department of Justice submitted to the court on Monday evening. The court must, however, approve the agreement.
The 52-year-old is charged with 17 counts of espionage and computer misuse for publishing a series of secret US documents on his whistleblower platform Wikileaks almost 15 years ago. The US government had said that Assange’s actions went beyond those of a journalist. He had published secret government documents that put people’s lives at risk.
Assange’s supporters see him as a journalist protected by the US Constitution who exposed misconduct by the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan.
According to Wikileaks, Assange is now free. Assange has left the high-security prison near London, where he had been incarcerated for five years, and has left Great Britain, the platform announced on “X”. A published video showed him boarding a plane at Stansted Airport. His wife Stella Assange reposted the clip and wrote: “Julian is free!!!!” She thanked all supporters. “THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU,” wrote Stella Assange in capital letters.
As can be seen on Flight Radar, a charter plane from Stansted was initially heading for Bangkok. There was initially no official confirmation from the British authorities.
Assange is now expected to appear in federal court in the Northern Mariana Islands – a US territory in the western Pacific – at 9 a.m. local time (1 a.m. CEST) on Wednesday and plead guilty to illegally obtaining and disseminating classified information about national defense policy, according to the Justice Department’s letter. According to US media, Assange will be sentenced to just over five years in prison – which he has already served in the UK.
If convicted without an agreement with prosecutors, Assange could face up to 175 years in prison for espionage.
The hearing is to take place on Saipan, the largest island in the Northern Mariana Islands, because Assange refuses to travel to the US mainland. Another reason is the proximity to Australia.
Assange’s expected guilty plea would bring an abrupt end to a legal drama that has been dragging on for years. He has been in London’s high-security Belmarsh prison for five years. Before that, Assange had been hiding in the Ecuadorian embassy in London for years after Swedish authorities tried to arrest him on rape charges.
Assange recently filed an appeal against his extradition from Great Britain to the USA. The case was actually supposed to be heard in July before the High Court in London. The High Court partially granted Assange’s request in May, thus preventing the 52-year-old from being immediately extradited to the USA.
The Australian government had also campaigned for the release of its citizen. US President Joe Biden recently raised some hope in this direction. When asked whether the US would consider an Australian request to drop the prosecution against Assange, he said: “We are considering that.”
