He is now a free man since Monday June 24. Julian Assange, pursued for years by the American authorities for having disclosed highly sensitive army documents, was authorized to leave the London prison where he was detained and to leave British territory. This release comes after the conclusion of a guilty plea agreement concluded with the American justice system.
Before returning to his native Australia, the 52-year-old whistleblower must first travel to the island of Saipan, in the Mariana Islands, to appear in a US federal court, Wednesday, June 26 morning, time local, relayed theAFP. We explain to you what we know about this little-known territory of the Pacific.
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A small territory in the Pacific
Saipan is the largest of fourteen islands in the territory of the Northern Mariana Islands, an archipelago in the Philippine Sea which belongs to the United States. Saipan is the capital of this 464 km² territory, populated by approximately 55,000 inhabitants. Saipan is approximately 70 kilometers from the island of Guam, and 2,500 kilometers from the capital of the Philippines, Manila.
As explained Reuters, the Northern Mariana Islands have belonged to the United States since the Second World War but have a special status not granting them the title of American state. As in Puerto Rico for example, the citizens of this territory cannot vote in the American presidential elections but Saipan has American courts on its soil.
Plead guilty in US court
The island is best known for its beaches popular with Chinese tourists and the Battle of Saipan during the Second World War and it is on this territory that Julian Assange is expected to land to plead before a US federal court, Wednesday morning June 26 around 9 a.m. local time.
According to American prosecutors, Julian Assange did not want to plead guilty directly on the American continental territory. For the whistleblower, Saipan has the advantage of being in the Philippine Sea, that is to say rather close to his country, Australia. The latter is located approximately 3,000 km south of the Northern Mariana Islands. And unlike Hawaii, the archipelago is not an American state.
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Julian Assange should then return to Australia
Julian Assange “will be a free man once the agreement [de plaider coupable, N.D.L.R.] validated by the judge”, what will happen ” tomorrow “ Wednesday, declared Tuesday from Australia his wife Stella Assange to the BBC. The end of this long legal drama plunged her into a “whirlwind of emotions”, she continued. “It’s finally over. »
If the agreement to plead guilty is validated by the judge, Julian Assange should be sentenced to 62 months in prison, already served in pre-trial detention in London, which would allow him to return free to his native Australia, as confirmed by theAFP. “After more than five years in a cell measuring two meters by three meters, isolated for 23 hours a day, he will soon be reunited with his wife Stella and their two children, who only knew their father behind bars,” a souligné WikiLeaks.
