Now prosecuted for “conspiracy to obtain and disclose information relating to national defense»the Australian is expected to plead guilty to this charge alone, according to court documents made public.
Julian Assange is «libre» and left the United Kingdom on a plane on Monday after negotiating a guilty plea agreement with the American justice system which demanded his extradition, announced his organization, WikiLeaks.
Prosecuted for exposing hundreds of thousands of confidential documents, this 52-year-old Australian must appear on Wednesday at 9:00 a.m. local (Tuesday 11:00 p.m. GMT) in federal court in the Mariana Islands, a US Pacific territory, according to court documents made public during the night from Monday to Tuesday.
“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 the fact that he could find his wife, Stella Assange, and their children, “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. (0450 GMT) to refuel with fuel and water. It must then take off again for Saipan, in the Mariana Islands, around 9 p.m. (2 p.m. GMT), a Thai official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Now prosecuted for “conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defense information”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.
“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» towards those who mobilized “For years” so that his liberation becomes “reality”.
“I am grateful that my son’s ordeal is finally coming to an end. This shows the importance and power of quiet diplomacy.said his mother, Christine Assange, in a statement released by Australian media. “Many have used my son’s situation to promote their own cause. So I am grateful to the invisible, hardworking people who put Julian’s well-being first.”she added.
The Australian government also commented on this outcome, believing that the Assange affair had “dragged on for too long” and that his continued detention no longer presented any interest.
Finally, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on Tuesday welcomed the end of this detention of Julian Assange. “We welcome the release of Julian Assange (…) in the United Kingdom and the significant progress towards a definitive resolution of this case, without further detention”Elizabeth Throssel, a spokesperson for the High Commission, told AFP.
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.
Punishable by 175 years in prison
He 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.
Among these documents is a video showing civilians, including two journalists from the Reuters agency, killed by fire from an American combat helicopter in Iraq in July 2007. Targeted by 18 charges, he theoretically faced up to to 175 years in prison under the Espionage Act.
Chelsea Manning, for her part, was sentenced to 35 years in prison by a court martial in August 2013, but was released after seven years after her sentence was commuted by President Barack Obama.
The latest twist in this long-running affair which has become a symbol for its supporters of the threats weighing on press freedom, two British judges granted Julian Assange the right to appeal against his extradition in May. That appeal was to include whether he would benefit from free speech protection as an alien in the U.S. legal system.
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 US President Joe Biden 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.
