Hours after Julian Assange was released from a British prison and was heading back to his home country Australia, WikiLeaks founder’s wife Stella Assange has said that she hasn’t revealed the news to her children yet but told them that there is a “big surprise” waiting for them in Australia. According to a Guardian report, citing BBC Radio 4 Today programme, Assange’s wife revealed she and her sons have already travelled to Australia in anticipation of her husband’s release. She said that as arrangements for Assange’s release had been “touch and go” over the last 72 hours, she and their two children had packed with barely any notice to head to Australia, flying on Sunday. “All I told them was that there was a big surprise on the morning that we left. I told them we were heading to the airport. And we got on the plane and I told them that we were going to visit our family, their cousin, their grandfather and so on,” she was quoted as saying. “And they still don’t know. We’ve been very careful because obviously no one can stop a five and a seven-year-old from, you know, shouting it from the rooftops at any given moment. And because of the sensitivity around the judge having to sign off the deal we’ve been very careful, just gradually, incrementally telling them information. They are very excited to be in Australia though,” she added.
Meanwhile, Stella also informed that Julian Assange’s flight had landed in Bangkok for layover and will soon take off again and fly into US airspace where he will appear before a US judge. “Julian Assange’s flight VJ199 landed in Bangkok and will soon take off again and fly into US airspace where he will appear before a US judge. Please follow #AssangeJet , we need all eyes on his flight in case something goes wrong,” she wrote on X. Stella said that their children, Gabriel and Max, had never seen their father outside of the visitors’ room at the London prison and confirmed that they would be told about their father’s release before they meet him. The family was reportedly informed less than 24 hours before Assange’s release from Belmarsh prison, where he has spent over five years resisting extradition to the United States following his departure from the Ecuadorian embassy. Having struck a plea deal with US authorities, which is anticipated to be finalised early on Wednesday, Assange was permitted to board a plane at Stansted Airport. He is expected to plead guilt to charges under the Espionage Act related to acquiring and revealing nationally significant information. Following a plea and sentencing session scheduled for Wednesday morning local time in the Mariana Islands, a US commonwealth in the Western Pacific, he is set to return to his homeland of Australia.
