WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been released from a London prison after striking a plea deal with the US Justice Department in a nearly 14-year-old espionage case. The case centered around the publication of classified defense documents, including those exposing wrongdoings in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, and revealing government secrets.
Assange is expected to appear in a US federal court in the Mariana Islands on Wednesday and plead guilty to unlawfully obtaining classified national defense information. This plea deal will allow him to walk free, ending the legal battle. The Justice Department outlined this agreement in its court filing.
Following the plea deal, Assange was taken from Belmarsh prison, where he had spent five years, to London’s Stansted airport. The 52-year-old Australian was later seen boarding a flight to an undisclosed destination. After his release, Assange is free to fly back to his native Australia.
In a statement posted on X (formerly Twitter), WikiLeaks confirmed Assange’s departure from the UK. They expressed gratitude to those who supported them in the fight for his freedom.
WikiLeaks stated, “Julian Assange is free. He left Belmarsh maximum security prison on the morning of June 24, after having spent 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.”
The statement continued, “WikiLeaks published groundbreaking stories of government corruption and human rights abuses, holding the powerful accountable for their actions. As editor-in-chief, Julian paid severely for these principles, and for the people’s right to know.”
Assange was initially hailed by many as an advocate of free speech after the publication of secret documents in 2010. However, he later faced accusations of sexual molestation. US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning, who assisted Assange in obtaining the secret documents, was sentenced to 35 years in jail. President Barack Obama commuted her sentence in 2017, allowing her release after about seven years behind bars.
