With U.S. Plea Deal, WikiLeaks Founder Assange is Free after 14-Year Legal Battle
25 June 2024 at 10:23
After a 14-year legal battle, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange walked out of the United Kingdom’s Belmarsh prison Monday morning, where he agreed to a plea deal with the United States.
According to court documents, Assange agreed to plead guilty to a single charge of conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defense information, which violates espionage law in the United States.
The sole charge carries a sentence of 62 months in prison, but under the plea deal the time he has already served in the UK prison — a little over 62 months — will be counted as time served. Thus, Assange will not be required to spend any more time behind bars in the U.S., the UK or anywhere else.
WikiLeaks and Human Rights Groups Celebrate Assange's Release
In a statement on platform X, WikiLeaks wrote, “Julian Assange is free.”“He left Belmarsh maximum security prison on the morning of 24 June, after having spent 1901 days there. 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.” – WikiLeaksAssange is being flown to Saipan, the capital of the Northern Mariana Islands and a U.S. commonwealth in the Western Pacific Ocean. The formal hearing and sentencing is set to take place in the U.S. District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands at 9 a.m. local time Wednesday. Assange was reluctant to fly to the mainland U.S., his prosecutors said, and thus Saipan was decided as an alternative due to its proximity with Australia. If the guilty plea is approved by the judge – as is expected – the WikiLeaks founder will head to Australia after the sentencing. Human rights organization Amnesty International’s Secretary General, Agnès Callamard welcomed the “positive news.”
“We firmly believe that Julian Assange should never have been imprisoned in the first place and have continuously called for charges to be dropped.” - Amnesty International’s Secretary General, Agnès Callamard“The years-long global spectacle of the US authorities hell-bent on violating press freedom and freedom of expression by making an example of Assange for exposing alleged war crimes committed by the USA has undoubtedly done historic damage,” Callamard said. “Amnesty International salutes the work of Julian Assange’s family, campaigners, lawyers, press freedom organizations and many within the media community and beyond who have stood by him and the fundamental principles that should govern society’s right and access to information and justice.” The Mexican President Andrés Manuel, sounded a similar sentiment and said:
“I celebrate the release of Julian Assange from prison. At least in this case, the Statue of Liberty did not remain an empty symbol; She is alive and happy like millions in the world.”