WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has agreed to plead guilty in a US court, marking an end to his years-long legal drama. He will be released from a British prison and appear in a US federal court in the Northern Mariana Islands later this week. Assange is expected to plead guilty to an Espionage Act charge of conspiring to unlawfully obtain and disseminate classified national defense information, according to a Justice Department letter filed in court. The guilty plea, pending judicial approval, abruptly concludes a criminal case that attracted international intrigue and witnessed the US government’s relentless pursuit of a publisher whose influential secret-sharing website made him a symbol for press freedom advocates. While supporters argued he acted as a journalist to expose US military misconduct, investigators maintained his actions violated laws safeguarding sensitive information and jeopardized national security.
Assange’s wife, Stella, expressed gratitude to supporters for their unwavering efforts in securing his release. He is scheduled to appear in the US territory on Wednesday morning. The agreement anticipates a sentence of 62 months in prison, factoring in the five years he served in British custody. This could pave the way for his return to his native Australia.
The 52-year-old publisher was sought by Washington for publishing hundreds of thousands of classified US documents as the head of WikiLeaks. During his ordeal, Assange became both a hero to free speech advocates worldwide and a villain to those who believed he compromised US national security and intelligence sources by revealing secrets. US authorities aimed to put Assange on trial for divulging US military secrets concerning the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. This plea bargain agreement is likely to end Assange’s nearly 14-year legal battle.
In 2019, Assange was indicted by a US federal grand jury on 18 counts related to WikiLeaks’ publication of a trove of national security documents. The deal was announced two weeks before Assange was scheduled to appeal a ruling approving his extradition to the United States. Assange had been held in the high-security Belmarsh prison in London since April 2019. Prior to that, he spent seven years in Ecuador’s London embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he faced sexual assault allegations that were ultimately dropped.
The material he released included a video depicting the killing of civilians by US helicopter gunship fire in Iraq in 2007, among the victims were two Reuters journalists. The United States accused Assange under the 1917 Espionage Act, which carries a potential sentence of 175 years in prison. The British government approved his extradition in June 2022. Two British judges granted him the right to appeal his extradition in May, citing concerns over whether he would receive First Amendment protections as a foreigner on trial in America.
The plea deal was not entirely unexpected, as President Joe Biden faced increasing pressure to drop the long-running case against Assange. The Australian government officially requested the case’s dismissal in February, and Biden indicated he would consider it, raising hopes among Assange supporters that his ordeal might conclude. With inputs from agencies.
