WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been freed from prison in the United Kingdom and is expected to travel home to Australia after agreeing to plead guilty to a single charge of breaching the Espionage Act (1917) in the United States.
52-year-old Assange will plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to obtain and disclose classified US national defence documents, according to a filing in the US District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands.
“Julian Assange is free,” WikiLeaks announced in a statement on X. “He left Belmarsh maximum security prison on the morning of June 24, after spending 1,901 days there. He was granted bail by the High Court in London and was released at Stansted Airport during the afternoon, where he boarded a plane and departed the UK.
“This is the result of a global campaign that spanned grass-roots organisers, press freedom campaigners, legislators and leaders from across the political spectrum, all the way to the United Nations. This created the space for long negotiations with the US Department of Justice, leading to a deal that has not yet been formally finalised. We will provide more information as soon as possible.”
Assange was freed from the UK’s high-security Belmarsh prison on Monday, June 24, and taken to the airport, from where he flew out of the country. He will appear at a court in Saipan, a US Pacific territory, at 9 am on Wednesday (23:00 GMT on Tuesday), where he will be sentenced to 62 months of the time already served.
Background on Julian Assange’s legal battles
Julian Assange rose to prominence with the launch of WikiLeaks in 2006, creating an online whistleblower platform for people to submit classified material such as documents and videos anonymously.
Footage of a US Apache helicopter attack in Baghdad, which killed a dozen people, including two journalists, raised the platform’s profile. At the same time, the 2010 release of hundreds of thousands of classified US documents on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as a trove of 700,000 diplomatic cables, cemented its reputation.
WikiLeaks published material about many countries, but it was the US, during the administration of former President Donald Trump, that decided to charge him in 2019 with 17 counts of breaching the Espionage Act in the US.
The Trump administration’s Justice Department accused Assange of directing former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning in one of the largest compromises of classified information in U.S. history.
The charges relate to WikiLeaks’ 2010 publication. Prosecutors accused Assange of helping Manning steal classified diplomatic cables that they say endangered national security and of conspiring together to crack a Defence Department password.
Manning was freed when President Obama commuted her sentence (officially reducing the length of a criminal sentence that a court imposed) in 2017.
“I feel very comfortable that justice has been served,” Obama told reporters at a final White House press conference when asked about his move a day before commuting the sentence handed down to Manning in 2013.
Reports from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq published by Assange included the names of Afghans and Iraqis who provided information to American and coalition forces, prosecutors said, while the diplomatic cables he released exposed journalists, religious leaders, human rights advocates and dissidents in repressive countries.
The charges led to outrage, with Assange’s supporters arguing that, as the publisher and editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks, he should not have faced charges usually used against government employees who steal or leak information. Press freedom advocates, meanwhile, argued that criminally charging Assange was a threat to free speech.
Assange was first arrested in London in 2010 on a Swedish warrant on sexual assault charges. Allowed bail pending the extradition case, Assange took refuge in Ecuador’s embassy in London in 2012 after a court ruled he could be sent to Sweden for trial.
He spent the next seven years in the embassy – during which time Swedish police withdrew the rape charges – before the UK police arrested him on charges of breaching his bail conditions. Assange was imprisoned in the UK as the US extradition case went through the courts.
Monday’s plea deal comes as pressure is being mounted on US President Joe Biden to drop the long-running case against Assange.
In February, the government of Australia made an official request to this effect and Biden said he would consider it, raising hopes among Assange supporters that his ordeal might end.
Reactions from family and supporters
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese emphasised the case had “dragged on for too long” and expressed a desire to bring Assange home as soon as possible.
“There is nothing to be gained by his continued incarceration, and we want him brought home to Australia,” Albanese said in parliament.
Julian Assange’s wife, Stella, said on X, “Words cannot express our immense gratitude to YOU- yes YOU, who have all mobilised for years and years to make this come true. THANK YOU. tHANK YOU. THANK YOU.” She also asked everyone to follow his flight to the US.
She expressed her joy, saying she was “elated” and it was “incredible” that her husband was set to be freed.
“He will be a free man once it has been signed off by the judge and that will happen sometime tomorrow,” she said. Stella also noted the serious concerns for journalists due to Assange’s guilty plea under the Espionage Act.
According to Aljazeera, Assange’s mother, Christine, expressed her gratitude that her son’s “ordeal is finally coming to an end,” attributing the outcome to “quiet diplomacy.”
In Australia, legislators who fought for Assange’s freedom also welcomed the news. Barnaby Joyce, a former deputy prime minister, noted the outcome set a strong precedent against extraterritoriality, while Australian Greens Senator David Shoebridge stressed that Assange should never have been charged with espionage in the first place.
Jodie Ginsberg, chief executive of the Committee to Protect Journalists, was “delighted” at the news of Assange’s expected release.
“If Julian had been extradited to the US and prosecuted under the Espionage Act … it would have had serious implications for journalists globally who seek information in the public interest, classified documents, and who then publish them in the public interest,” she said.
But, Mike Pence, who served as U.S. Vice President under Donald Trump when the charges were brought against Assange, said “Julian Assange endangered the lives of our troops in a time of war and should have been prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
“The Biden administration’s plea deal with Assange is a miscarriage of justice and dishonours the service and sacrifice of the men and women of our Armed Forces and their families. There should be no plea deals to avoid prison for anyone who endangers the security of our military or the national security of the United States. Ever.“
Final steps for the WikiLeaks founder
As Assange prepares to return to Australia, the international community continues to watch closely. The plea deal represents a significant development in a case that has global implications for journalism, legal standards, and international relations.
The outcome is seen by many as a test of the balance between national security interests and the principles of free speech and press freedom.
“We will be seeking a pardon, obviously, but the fact that there is a guilty plea, under the Espionage Act, concerning obtaining and disclosing national defence information is a very serious concern for journalists,” Stella Assange told Reuters.
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