"After 14 years of legal battles, Julian Assange is free to go home," lawyer Jennifer Robinson told reporters outside the court on the island of Saipan, where the WikiLeaks founder's deal with US justice was upheld.
Judge Ramona Manglona accepted his guilty plea to conspiracy to obtain and disclose classified US national security documents, and released him because of time he had already served in a British prison.
Julian has arrived at the federal court house in Saipan.
I watch this and think how overloaded his senses must be, walking through the press scrum after years of sensory depravity and the four walls of his high security Belmarsh prison cell.
— Stella Assange (@Stella_Assange) June 25, 2024
During the three-hour hearing, Julian Assange pleaded guilty as required by the agreement: "Working as a journalist I encouraged my source to provide information that was allegedly classified in order to make it public," he told the court. "I believed that the First Amendment protected this activity, but I accept that it was ... a violation of the Espionage Act," Assange added.
It is recalled that the founder of WikiLeaks remained incarcerated for five years in the Belmars maximum security prison, after spending the previous seven years in the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
The 52-year-old Assange leaves Saipan by private jet for Canberra, Australia, accompanied by the Australian ambassadors to the US and Britain.
"Today is a historic day," said defense attorney Jennifer Robinson. "It is a great relief for Julian Assange ... for his friends, his family, his supporters, for us, for everyone who believes in free speech around the world ... that he can now return to Australia and be reunited with his family of", he added.
Julian walks out of Saipan federal court a free man. I can't stop crying.#AssangeFree #AssangeJet pic.twitter.com/Uee3uKceg0
— Stella Assange (@Stella_Assange) June 26, 2024
