Julian Assange, the controversial founder of WikiLeaks, walked free from a court in Saipan on Wednesday after pleading guilty to violating U.S. espionage laws. This plea deal will allow him to return to his homeland, Australia.
During the intense three-hour hearing, Assange admitted to conspiring to obtain and disclose classified U.S. national defense documents. He argued that he believed the First Amendment, which protects free speech, safeguarded his actions.
“As a journalist, I encouraged my source to provide information labeled as classified to publish it,” Assange told the court. “I believed the First Amendment protected that activity but I accept that it was … a violation of the espionage statute.”
Chief U.S. District Judge Ramona V. Manglona accepted his guilty plea, releasing him due to the time already served in a British prison.
Assange, 52, is set to depart Saipan shortly after noon local time on a private jet, accompanied by Australian ambassadors to the U.S. and the UK, according to flight logs. They will head to Canberra, arriving just before 7 p.m.
Court filings revealed that Assange agreed to plead guilty to a single criminal count. Prosecutors explained that the U.S. territory in the western Pacific was chosen for the hearing due to Assange’s opposition to traveling to the mainland U.S. and its proximity to Australia.
The hearing drew a significant media presence from around the globe, though cameras were not permitted inside the courtroom.
Stella Assange, Julian’s wife, reflected on social media platform X, “I watch this and think how overloaded his senses must be, walking through the press scrum after years of sensory deprivation and the four walls of his high-security Belmarsh prison cell.”
A Long and Arduous Journey
Julian Assange’s saga has been long and complex. The Australian-born activist spent over five years in a British high-security jail and seven years in the Ecuadorean embassy in London. Throughout, he faced accusations of sex crimes in Sweden and battled extradition to the U.S. where he confronted 18 criminal charges.
Supporters of Assange see him as a martyr who exposed U.S. misconduct and potential crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq. Conversely, Washington maintains that his release of classified documents endangered lives.
The Australian government has consistently advocated for his release, raising the issue with the U.S. on numerous occasions.
“This hasn’t been a sudden development,” said Prime Minister Anthony Albanese during a news conference on Wednesday. “This has been a well-considered, patient process, handled in a calibrated manner, which reflects how Australia operates.”
