Julian Assange walks free after guilty plea
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More news: Julian Assange has left court on the US Pacific island territory of Saipan as a free man, after a federal judge sentenced him to time already served in prison.
The WikiLeaks founder waved to the crowd outside the courtroom before getting into a vehicle, but did not say anything.
What they said: Speaking to reporters outside the courtroom, Assange's chief US lawyer Barry J Pollack said: "The prosecution of Julian Assange is unprecedented in the 100 years of the espionage act.
"It has never been used by United States to pursue a publisher, a journalist, like Mr Assange.
"Mr Assange revealed truthful, newsworthy information, including revealing that the United States had committed war crimes.
"WikiLeaks's work will continue and Mr Assange, I have no doubt, will be a continuing force for freedom of speech and transparency in government."
Speaking at a press conference earlier in the day, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said: "This is not something that has happened in the last 24 hours, this is something that has been considered, patient, worked through and in a calibrated way which is how […] Australia conducts itself in our nation."
"I have been very clear, as Labor leader and as prime minister, regardless of what your views [are] about Mr Assange’s activities, his case has dragged on for too long," he said. "There is nothing to be gained from his continued incarceration and we want him brought home to Australia."
Julian Assange pleads guilty ahead of expected release
The news: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has pleaded guilty to one charge of violating US espionage law, ahead of a likely release following a deal with US prosecutors.
The numbers: 52-year-old Assange pleaded guilty in a courtroom on the US Pacific island territory of Saipan. He is due to be sentenced for 62 months, with credit for time served in British prison. If the judge approves his plea, Assange is expected to return to his home in Australia, US prosecutors have said.
The context: Assange’s team was accompanied to the courtroom by Australia's ambassador to the US, Kevin Rudd. Assange had been held in the high-security Belmarsh Prison near London for five years, and he previously spent seven years in self-exile at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London until he was arrested in April 2019. WikiLeaks released hundreds of thousands of classified US military documents in 2010 on Washington's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq — the largest security breaches of their kind in US military history — along with swaths of diplomatic cables.
Wikileaks said in a post on social media platform X that Assange is expected to depart from Saipan for Canberra later on Wednesday.
