Julian Assange returns to Australia after guilty plea
Julian Assange is set to return to Australia on Wednesday night after pleading guilty to a single count of espionage, ending his 14-year legal saga.
The WikiLeaks founder pleaded guilty at a court hearing in a federal court in Saipan, the capital of the Northern Mariana Islands, a US commonwealth in the Pacific, on Wednesday morning.
The 52-year-old was accompanied by Australian ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd as he pleaded guilty to a single felony charge for publishing US military secrets, in a deal with the US justice department that will secure his freedom.
The hearing is the culmination of the US government’s years-long pursuit of Assange, who has been painted both as a hero of press freedom and a reckless criminal for exposing hundreds of thousands of sensitive military documents through WikiLeaks.
During the hearing, Assange was asked by the judge to explain “what it is you did”, as Assange explained, “working as a journalist, I encouraged my source to provide information that was said to be classified in order to publish that information.”
Under the deal with the US justice department, Assange will be free to leave the court due to time already served in a UK prison and to travel on to Australia to be reunited with his family.
Assange's wife Stella, a lawyer who married the WikiLeaks founder in prison in 2022, told the BBC from Australia that it had been “touch and go” over 72 hours whether the deal would go ahead.
“He will be a free man once it is signed off by a judge,” she said, adding that she is still coming to terms with the news.
Following the hearing, Assange's lawyer addressed the press and praised the judge for withholding a jail sentence.
"The prosecution of Julian Assange is unprecedented," he said.
"In the 100 years of the Espionage Act it has never been used by the US to pursue a publisher, a journalist, like Mr Assange."
He went on to say that Assange has "suffered tremendously" over the last 14 years, adding that he would remain a "powerful voice" as WikiLeaks continues its work when Assange lands in Australia.
Image credits: Samantha Solomn/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock Editorial