On Wednesday, an American judge accepted Julian Assange’s guilty plea on charges of violating US espionage laws. This was a significant development in the ongoing legal battle surrounding the Wikileaks founder, who had been incarcerated since April 2019. During the hearing, Assange admitted that he had encouraged his source, US soldier Chelsea Manning, to deliver classified material, believing that the First Amendment of the US Constitution protected him.
Assange made a deal with the US government to avoid going to the mainland of the United States and instead be sealed in the Mariana Islands, an archipelago in the Pacific Ocean. The court ruled that he could leave as a free man following the ruling. However, just after 4:30 am, Assange left without making a statement.
The plane carrying Assange then took off from Saipan and landed in Canberra at 11:30 am local time. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese expressed happiness that Assange was finally returning home to reunite with his family. He emphasized that there was no point in detaining him any longer and expressed relief that the long legal battle was over.
Under the terms of his deal with the US government, Assange was sentenced to 62 months in prison for espionage law violations. However, he would no longer have to serve this sentence and would be free to go about his life without any further restrictions or punishments.
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