Key points
- WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange faces a US courtroom in Saipan.
- He has pleaded guilty to one charge.
- The hearing brings relief to Assange’s family and puts an end to a fourteen-year saga of leaking secret state information.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has pleaded guilty to a criminal charge in the US territory of Saipan, 14 years after he leaked large amounts of classified state information and ended up in a British maximum-security prison.
The story that began with Assange holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, before being led to solitary confinement in Britain’s Belmarsh prison, now looks set to end in a tropical paradise in the Pacific.
Assange, along with his support team and Australian Ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd, arrived at the US court in Saipan, the capital of the Northern Mariana Islands, just before 8am.
When court resumed after 9 a.m., he was sworn in, presented his full name to the court and swore to tell the truth.
Chief Justice Ramona Manglona told the court that Assange was charged with “conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defense information”, the ABC reports.
The 52-year-old has pleaded guilty to the specific charge, which is a violation of 18 USC, Section 793(g) and carries a maximum penalty of up to 10 years in prison.
The ABC reports that the US federal court has accepted Assange’s guilty plea and is now on a break.
What will happen next?
Although the charge carries a prison sentence, Assange will be released shortly after the hearing, taking into account time spent in a British prison.
Once the proceedings are over, WikiLeaks and his family say Assange will be free to return to Australia.
Wikileaks posted Assange’s flight route on social media platform X, revealing he will board a flight to Canberra less than three hours after the hearing starts.
His family, including father John Shipton, are overjoyed to be reunited with Assange.
“Doing cartwheels is a good expression of the joy you feel that Julian has returned home, well, is about to return home,” he told ABC News on Wednesday morning.
“There may be some questions to be resolved by the lawyers and the diplomats in the future, but it is quite good to let Julian lead an ordinary life after fifteen years of confinement in one form or another – house arrest, prison and asylum in an embassy. news.”
What has the reaction been?
Australia has long called on the US to end its pursuit of Assange, who faced espionage charges.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had raised the issue directly with US President Joe Biden and a group of politicians from across Australia’s political spectrum met in Washington in September to lobby US decision-makers.
“Regardless of people’s views on Assange’s activities, the case has dragged on for too long,” Albanese said.
National MP Barnaby Joyce praised the “good outcome” and went so far as to say the US government had overstepped the mark by trying to convict Assange.
“If you don’t commit an offence in Australia, citizenship means there’s no risk of you being jailed in a third country. That’s the premise of my argument,” he told ABC News Breakfast on Wednesday.
Former US Vice President Mike Pence wrote on X that the plea represents a “miscarriage of justice”.
“There should be no plea deals to avoid prison for anyone who endangers the safety of our military or the national security of the United States. Someday,” he said.
Assange’s family praises government ahead of reunification
Shipton praised the Australian government for its efforts to end the “persecution” of his son.
“I’m absolutely delighted – it’s like a huge burden has been lifted,” he told the PA news agency.
Assange’s mother, Christine Assange, said his release showed “the importance and power of quiet diplomacy.”
“Many have used my son’s situation to push their own agendas, so I am grateful to those invisible, hardworking people who put Julian’s well-being first,” she said.
“The last 14 years have clearly taken their toll as a mother.”
Assange’s wife Stella said that while there was uncertainty about the situation ahead of her husband’s release from prison, she was “delighted” by the developments.
On Tuesday evening, she issued a public appeal for donations to help pay the US$520,000 ($783,000) fee for the plane that brought her husband home.
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