Techub News reported that according to Reuters, documents from the U.S. District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands showed that 52-year-old Julian Assange agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to obtain and leak U.S. defense secrets, and reached an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice. After pleading guilty, he will regain his freedom and return to Australia.
At 9:00 a.m. local time on June 25, 2024 (7:00 a.m. Hong Kong time on June 25, 2024), Julian Assange was sentenced to 62 months in prison at a hearing in Saipan, equivalent to the time he was detained in the UK, which means that he has served his sentence and will be released after completing the procedure.
WikiLeaks said in a statement: "Assange is free. He left Belmarsh maximum security prison on the morning of June 24, where he had spent 1901 days." Assange was subsequently released on bail by the High Court in London and flew out of the UK that afternoon.
WikiLeaks added that Assange would return to Australia after the hearing in Saipan.
The Australian government does not comment on ongoing legal proceedings, but Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has advocated for Assange's release. In February, the Australian parliament passed a bill to stop the prosecution of Assange and allow the Australian citizen to return home.
Assange founded WikiLeaks in 2006 and exposed more than 700,000 confidential U.S. government documents in 2010. Swedish authorities expressed their desire to question Assange on charges of sexual crimes. Assange was subsequently arrested in the UK under a European arrest warrant, but the charges were later dropped. To avoid extradition to Sweden, Assange fled to the Ecuadorian Embassy and stayed there for seven years. In April 2019, Ecuador revoked his political asylum, and Assange was arrested and detained in Belmarsh Prison. The U.S. Department of Justice filed 17 counts of espionage and one charge of improper use of a computer against Assange, and the two sides have been engaged in years of legal battles. Many press freedom advocates believe that the charges against Assange are a threat to freedom of speech.
