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Julian Assange is “free” and left the United Kingdom on a plane on Monday after negotiating a guilty plea agreement with the American justice system which was demanding his extradition, announced his organization, WikiLeaks.
Prosecuted for exposing hundreds of thousands of confidential documents, Julian Assange, 52, must appear Wednesday at 9 a.m. local time (1:10 a.m. Paris time) in federal court in the Mariana Islands, a US Pacific territory, according to court documents made public overnight from Monday to Tuesday.
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“Julian Assange is free” and 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, WikiLeaks said shortly after, welcoming that he can reunite with his wife, Stella Assange, and their children, “the result of a global campaign”.
The organization then released a 13-second video in which we see him climbing the stairs of the aircraft. The plane is expected in Bangkok on Tuesday around 11:50 a.m. local to refuel with fuel and water. It must then take off again for Saipan, in the Mariana Islands, around 9 p.m., a Thai official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
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Now prosecuted for “conspiracy to obtain and disclose information relating to national defense”, Julian Assange should plead guilty to this charge alone, according to the court documents made public, which also cite his accomplice, the American soldier Chelsea Manning, origin of this massive leak.
“Discreet diplomacy”
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!!!”, exulted his wife Stella Assange, expressing “immense gratitude” to those who have mobilized “for years” to make his release a “reality”.
“I am grateful that my son’s ordeal is finally coming to an end. This shows the importance and power of quiet diplomacy,” his mother, Christine Assange, said in a statement carried by Australian media. “Many have used my son’s situation to promote their own cause, so I am grateful to the invisible, hard-working people who put Julian’s well-being first,” she added.
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The Australian government also commented on this outcome, saying that the Assange case had “draped on for too long” and that his continued detention was no longer of any interest.
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.
