Saipan, Northern Mariana IslandsWikiLeaks founder Julian Assange pleaded guilty to a single felony charge of publishing U.S. military secrets in a deal with Justice Department prosecutors that guarantees his freedom and concludes a long legal saga that raised divisive questions about press freedom. and national security.
The plea was filed Wednesday morning (local time) in federal court in Saipan, the capital of the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. community in the Pacific. He arrived at the courthouse shortly before the hearing began, dressed in a dark suit with a tie loosened at the neck, and entered the building without answering questions.
Although the deal with prosecutors required him to admit guilt to a single felony, it would also allow him to return to his native Australia without spending any time in a U.S. prison. He had been imprisoned in the United Kingdom for the past five years, fighting extradition to the United States on an Espionage Act charge that could have carried a lengthy prison sentence if convicted.
The abrupt conclusion allows both sides to claim some degree of victory, as the Justice Department was able to resolve without trial a case that raised thorny legal questions and that might never have reached a jury, given the slow pace of the extradition process. Meanwhile, Assange’s wife Stella told the BBC she was “ecstatic” at the news as her husband flew on a charter plane to Saipan en route to walk free.
WikiLeaks, the secrets-sharing website that Assange founded in 2006, welcomed the agreement’s announcement and said it was grateful for “everyone who supported us, fought for us and remained absolutely committed to the fight for his freedom.”
The settlement, disclosed Monday night in a sparsely detailed letter from the Justice Department, represents the latest chapter in a court fight involving the eccentric Australian computer expert who has been celebrated by his supporters as a transparency crusader but criticized. by national security hawks who insist that his disregard for government secrecy put lives at risk and strayed far beyond the bounds of traditional journalistic duties.
With agency information
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