WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange avoided extradition to the United States after reaching a plea agreement with the US Department of Justice. Today, five years after being detained, he was finally released from a British prison.
According to the official Twitter account of WikiLeaks, the High Court in London has approved Assange's bail application. He was released at Stansted Airport on Monday afternoon and boarded a plane to leave the UK.
Free from extradition and granted bail
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is currently expected to avoid extradition to the United States thanks to a plea deal he has reached with the U.S. Department of Justice. Although the deal has not yet been finalized, Assange has agreed to plead guilty to one charge (conspiracy to obtain and disclose U.S. defense information). Under the deal, he is likely to receive a sentence equal to the five years and three months he has already served in Belmarsh Prison in London.
Assange's predicament originated in 2010 when he published about 700,000 classified US military documents concerning Washington's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, which were leaked by former US military intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning. The documents included a large number of diplomatic cables and battlefield records, even including killings in Iraq.
That same year, Assange sought asylum at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London to avoid contact with Swedish authorities over allegations of sexual misconduct. Although the charges were later dropped, the United States still sought to arrest him. During this period, traditional payment platforms such as PayPal closed WikiLeaks' accounts, forcing Assange to turn to cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin to raise funds. In 2019, he was expelled from the Ecuadorian Embassy and has been detained in Belmarsh Prison since then, during which he has always opposed extradition to the United States.
Despite protests from Bitcoin’s anonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, Assange turned to Bitcoin to raise funds and was eventually kicked out of the Ecuadorian embassy in 2019. Assange had remained there since being held in Belmarsh for skipping bail, fighting extradition to the US, until he was granted parole yesterday and flew out of the UK.
Millions of dollars raised using cryptocurrency
The arrest of the WikiLeaks founder sparked outrage among press freedom advocates, who argued and protested that the action taken against him threatened free speech. The protests led to the creation of AssangeDAO, a decentralized autonomous organization that aims to restore Assange's freedom. The DAO raised millions of dollars in ether from thousands of users.
Apparently, the efforts of The DAO and several freedom advocates have paid off, as Assange has been released from prison. He will be sentenced on June 25 at 11 pm UTC (9 am Chamorro Standard Time on June 26) in Saipan.
WikiLeaks officially stated: "As he returns to Australia, we thank all those who supported us, fought for us, and fought wholeheartedly for his freedom. Julian Assange's freedom is our freedom." #阿桑奇 #获批保释 #认罪协议 #美国
Conclusion:
Julian Assange's release is not only a victory for his personal struggle, but also the result of the joint efforts of press freedom advocates around the world. From a London prison to the hope of freedom, Assange's every step has attracted the attention of the world. His story reminds us that freedom of speech and information transparency are the cornerstones of a democratic society and are worth our unremitting defense.
With Assange's upcoming sentencing, we hope that justice will be served and the truth will be revealed. At the same time, we should also reflect on how to find a balance between protecting the free flow of information and maintaining national security. Assange's case has provided us with profound inspiration and also pointed out the direction for our future actions.
Finally, let us once again pay tribute to all those who have fought for Assange's freedom, and hope that his return will bring new hope and momentum to the fight for freedom of speech. As WikiLeaks said, "Julian's freedom is our freedom", let us work together to protect this precious freedom.
