Agreement between Julian Assange and American justice confirmed: Wikileaks founder is now a free man

The whistleblower did not want to go to the mainland of the United States, so the deal for his freedom had to be sealed in the Mariana Islands, an archipelago in the Pacific Ocean.

In court, a visibly tired Assange admitted that he had encouraged his source, US soldier Chelsea Manning, to deliver classified material. He thought the First Amendment of the US Constitution protected him. “I accept that this is a violation of the Espionage Act, and I believe that the First Amendment and the Espionage Act contradict each other. But I also accept that it would be difficult to win such a case, given all the circumstances.”

Immediately back to Australia as a free man

“With this ruling, it appears that you can leave this courtroom as a free man,” Judge Ramona V. Manglona said at the courthouse in Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands. Just after 4:30 am (Belgian time), the Wikileaks founder left the court without making a statement. His lawyer Jennifer Robinson calls it a “historic day that puts an end to a 14-year legal battle.”

Just after 5 a.m. the plane taking Assange from Saipan to Canberra took off. Assange must arrive in his home country by 11:30 am. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is happy that Assange is “on his way home to Australia to reunite with his family”. Albanese says he has repeatedly emphasized that there was no point in detaining Assange. According to Albanese, the Australian government’s involvement in this case has been “very complicated” and has involved several channels. “But I am very proud of the result of the careful, patient and determined efforts.”(Read more below the post)

62 months in prison

Under the deal, Assange is sentenced to 62 months in prison for violations of espionage law, but he will no longer have to serve that prison sentence. The whistleblower has been locked up in a British prison since April 2019. Before his incarceration in Belmarsh, he also spent seven years at the Ecuadorian embassy in London. (Read more below the post)

In the United States, Assange was prosecuted on a total of eighteen charges. He risked up to 175 years in prison for publishing secret documents about American military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. According to the US, the Australian endangered the lives of American informants with his publications – the largest defense leak in the country’s history.