After being convicted of espionage in a US court, Julian Assange was freed and moved to his native Australia.
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After more than a decade of court battles, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is a free man.
As part of an agreement with the United States government, this Wednesday Assange pleaded guilty to the crime of espionage before a federal court in Saipan, the capital of the Northern Mariana Islands, a US territory in the South Pacific.
The judge presiding over the hearing recognised Assange for the nearly 5 years he had spent in captivity in the United Kingdom, like this He was not taken into US custody. and was able to regain his freedom.
According to WikiLeaks sources, Assange left the court without making any statement. It will reach Canberra in the next few hours.in Australia, her native country.
It is the end of a journey that led to his detention for 12 years: 7 of them in the Ecuadorian embassy in London and the other 5 in a British maximum security prison, from which he left on Monday after reaching an agreement with the US Department of Justice
Assange was accompanied in court by current Australia’s ambassador to the United States and former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.
image Source, Reuters
“WikiLeaks’ work will continue”
US prosecutors originally wanted to prosecute Assange on 18 charges, mostly under the Espionage Act, for WikiLeaks’ 2010 and 2011 publications. Confidential US military documents relating to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
But following a deal with Washington authorities, Assange this Wednesday pleaded guilty only to conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defense information.
The WikiLeaks founder told the court that when he published classified files in 2010, he was a journalist and believed he would be protected by the First Amendment of the US Constitution, which covers freedom of the press.
After the sentencing, Assange’s lawyer, Barry Pollack, said: “WikiLeaks’ work will continue And Mr. Assange, I have no doubt, will continue to be a continuing force for freedom of expression and transparency in government.
“Her is a powerful voice and one that cannot and should not be silenced.”
The hearing took place in the remote Pacific archipelago because it is much closer to Assange’s native Australia than US federal courts in Hawaii or the continental United States.
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A long judicial journey
Assange has spent the last five years behind bars at London’s high-security Belmarsh prison, fighting US efforts to have him extradited.
In 2010, he was charged with separate charges of rape and sexual assault in Sweden, which he denied. He spent seven years hiding in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, claiming he would be deported to the United States because of the Swedish case.
Swedish authorities dropped that case in 2019, saying too much time had passed since the original complaint, but U.K. authorities later stayed it. He was prosecuted after failing to surrender to court to be extradited to Sweden.
In the United States, Assange was accused Conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defense informationAfter the big revelations by WikiLeaks in 2010.
WikiLeaks published a video filmed from a US military helicopter showing the killing of civilians in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.
He also released thousands of classified documents that revealed US forces killed hundreds of civilians in unknown incidents during the war in Afghanistan.
These revelations became big news, triggering reactions in all corners of the world and intense scrutiny of American involvement in foreign conflicts.
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“enthusiastic”
Assange’s wife Stella told the BBC on Monday that she was “happy” the legal saga was coming to an end.
She assured that the priority for her husband is “to recover his health”, to be in contact with nature and to have family. “Time and Privacy”.The couple has two young children.
He also told the BBC: “We don’t have much time to talk about the future; the first thing they have to do is repay the Australian government $500,000 for chartered flights.”
Assange’s wife has launched a crowdfunding campaign to cover the costs, and says they have already raised more than half of the amount needed.
Assange and his wife’s legal team have long claimed the case against them was politically motivated and called on US President Joe Biden to drop the charges.
In April, Biden said he was considering a request to do so from Australia, whose prime minister said the matter had “drawn on too long.”
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