Julian Assange free: the founder of WikiLeaks reached an agreement with American justice

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has reached a plea deal with US courts under which he will be free after years of detention in the United Kingdom, according to court documents made public overnight from Monday to Tuesday.

Pursued by the American authorities for having disclosed hundreds of thousands of confidential documents, the Australian must appear before a federal court in the Mariana Islands, an American territory in the Pacific. He should plead guilty to “conspiracy to obtain and disclose information relating to national defense”according to these documents.

Julian Assange left the United Kingdom and the high security prison near London where he had been incarcerated since 2019, to board a private plane at Stansted airport, the WikiLeaks organization said shortly after, welcoming the fact that he can reunite with his wife, Stella Assange, and their children, “result of a global campaign”. The plane, after a refueling stopover in Bangkok, should land in the Mariana Islands around 9 p.m. local time (4 p.m. in Paris).

Now prosecuted for “conspiracy to obtain and disclose information relating to national defense”, Julian Assange should plead guilty to this charge alone, according to court documents made public, which also cite his accomplice, American soldier Chelsea Manning, at the origin of this massive leak. He is expected to be sentenced to 62 months in prison, already served on remand in London, which would allow him to return free to his native Australia.

Julian is free!!!

Stella Assange

“Julian is free!!!”exulted his wife Stella Assange, expressing “immense gratitude” towards those who mobilized “For years” so that his liberation becomes “reality”. This agreement puts an end to a saga of almost 14 years. It came as British justice was due to examine, on July 9 and 10, an appeal by Julian Assange against his extradition to the United States, approved by the United Kingdom government in June 2022.

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Julian Assange was fighting not to be handed over to American justice, which is pursuing him for having made public since 2010 more than 700,000 confidential documents on American military and diplomatic activities, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan. Targeted by 18 charges, he theoretically faced up to 175 years in prison under the Espionage Act.

The founder of WikiLeaks was arrested by British police in April 2019 after seven years spent in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, in order to avoid extradition to Sweden in a rape investigation, dismissed the same year. Since then, calls have increased for the American president to drop the charges against him. Australia presented an official request to this effect in February, which Joe Biden said he was examining, raising hope among his supporters.