WikiLeaks Founder, Assange Leaves UK Prison After Five Years To Finalise Plea Deal With US
After five years of detention at the Belmarsh Prison in London, WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange has been freed, his team announced on Tuesday.
Assange’s release marks a significant development in his long-standing legal battle against extradition to the United States, where he faces charges related to the disclosure of classified information.
The Australian national had been held in the UK since 2019, sparking a protracted legal fight that has raised pressing questions about press freedom and the public’s right to know, RT reports.
According to newly filed court documents, Assange will soon strike a plea deal in order to avoid further time behind bars,
“Julian Assange is free. He left Belmarsh maximum security prison on the morning of 24 June, after having spent 1901 days there,” WikiLeaks wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
“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.”
WikiLeaks said the international campaign to free Assange has created “the space for a long period of negotiations with the US Department of Justice, leading to a deal that has not yet been formally finalised.”
“As he returns to Australia, we thank all who stood by us, fought for us, and remained utterly committed in the fight for his freedom,” WikiLeaks wrote.
“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. As he returns to Australia, we thank all who stood by us, fought for us, and remained utterly committed in the fight for his freedom.”
According to a letter from the DOJ, Assange will appear in court in Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands, a US territory in the Pacific, at 9am local time on Wednesday.
“We anticipate that the defendant will plead guilty to the charge… of conspiring to unlawfully obtain and disseminate classified information relating to the national defense of the United States,” the letter said.
The DOJ said it expects Assange to return to his home country of Australia after the proceedings.
Under Assange’s leadership, WikiLeaks published multiple top-secret files, including documents related to the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as a trove of US diplomatic cables.
In 2010, the organization published a video of a US military helicopter attacking civilians in Baghdad in 2007 after mistaking them for insurgents.
Fearing extradition to the US, Assange spent seven years hiding inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.
He was ejected from the premises in 2019, when Ecuador revoked his asylum status.
The activist was immediately arrested by British police and subsequently spent five years in Belmarsh after being found guilty of jumping bail.
Assange’s legal team, family, and associates have described the conditions in Belmarsh as “torture” and warned that his health significantly deteriorated behind bars.
In 2012, the WikiLeaks co-founder hosted ‘The World Tomorrow’ on RT. Over 12 episodes, the program covered a number of hotly debated topics, featuring guests such as Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, former Guantanamo Bay inmate Moazzam Begg, and former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan.
