WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, 52, has been freed after pleaded guilty to obtaining and publishing U.S. military secrets Wednesday in a deal with Justice Department prosecutors. The deal secures his liberty and concludes a drawn-out legal saga that raised controversial questions about press freedom and national security.
Until this week, Assange was in prison in the UK due to the U.S. extradition case, which was based on allegations that his activities with WikiLeaks endangered the lives of U.S. informants and compromised national security. The case raised significant questions about press freedoms and the treatment of publishers and whistleblowers, as noted by AP.
The criminal case of international intrigue, which had played out for years in major world stages of Washington and London, came to a surprise end in a most unusual manner with Assange entering his plea in a U.S. district court in Saipan, the capital of the Northern Mariana Islands. The American commonwealth in the Pacific is relatively close to Assange’s native Australia and accommodated his desire to avoid entering the continental United States.
Assange has been involved in legal troubles for over a decade, primarily due to his role in publishing classified documents. He hasn’t been jailed for the act of publishing itself but has faced several legal battles.
In 2010, Assange was accused of sexual assault in Sweden. He denied the allegations, asserting that they were a pretext for his extradition to the United States. The Swedish case was eventually dropped in 2019 after the Swedish authorities decided not to pursue the investigation further due to the passage of time.
Assange took asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden. He stayed there until 2019, when his asylum was revoked, and he was arrested by British police for breaching UK bail conditions by seeking asylum in the embassy instead of surrendering for extradition to Sweden as required.
After his arrest in 2019, the U.S. sought his extradition on charges related to the publication of classified documents. The U.S. indictment includes charges under the Espionage Act for his role in the 2010 release of classified military and diplomatic documents. For years, Assange had been fighting this extradition in UK courts.