WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was freed on Wednesday by a court in Saipan, a U.S. territory in the Pacific, after pleading guilty to violating U.S. espionage laws. This development comes as part of a plea deal that will allow Assange to return to his native Australia.
During a three-hour hearing, Assange admitted to one count of conspiring to obtain and disclose classified U.S. defense documents, while asserting that he believed the First Amendment, which protects free speech, should have shielded his activities. “Working as a journalist, I encouraged my source to provide information that was said to be classified in order to publish that information,” Assange stated in court. “I believed the First Amendment protected that activity but I accept that it was … a violation of the espionage statute.”
Chief U.S. District Judge Ramona V. Manglona accepted Assange’s guilty plea and ordered his release, citing the time he had already served in a British jail. Assange, now 52, promptly departed Saipan on a private jet alongside Australian diplomats, with flight logs indicating their destination as Canberra, where they were expected to land shortly before 7 pm local time (0900 GMT).
Assange’s plea deal, which involved admitting to a single criminal count, was arranged in the U.S. District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands. The choice of this location was influenced by Assange’s reluctance to travel to the U.S. mainland and its geographical proximity to Australia, according to prosecutors.
The hearing attracted significant international media attention, with dozens of journalists covering the event from outside the courtroom, as filming inside was prohibited. On social media platform X, Assange’s wife, Stella, commented on the emotional impact of the event, stating, “I watch this and think how overloaded his senses must be, walking through the press scrum after years of sensory deprivation and the four walls of his high-security Belmarsh prison cell.”
Assange’s release marks a significant moment in a long-running legal battle. He spent over five years in a British high-security prison and an additional seven years in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, evading accusations of sex crimes in Sweden and fighting against extradition to the U.S. to face 18 criminal charges.
Assange’s supporters see him as a whistleblower who exposed U.S. misconduct and potential war crimes, particularly in conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. However, U.S. authorities maintain that the release of classified documents endangered lives.
The Australian government has been advocating for Assange’s release, raising the issue with U.S. officials on several occasions. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese highlighted the careful and deliberate nature of the negotiations, stating at a news conference, “This isn’t something that has happened in the last 24 hours. This is something that has been considered, patient, worked through in a calibrated way, which is how Australia conducts ourselves.”
As Assange returns to Australia, his release marks a significant chapter in a contentious legal and political saga that has drawn global attention.