Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands.- A US judge has freed Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, in a plea deal that ended a 14-year legal ordeal over the disclosure of military secrets.
“With this ruling, it appears that you will be able to leave this court as a free man,” the judge said.
Earlier during the three-hour hearing, Assange pleaded guilty to one criminal charge of conspiracy to obtain and disclose classified U.S. national defense documents but said he believed the Constitution’s First Amendment, which protects free speech, protected his activities.
“Working as a journalist I encouraged my source to provide information that was said to be classified so that it could be published,” he told the court.
“I believed the First Amendment protected that activity, but I accept that it was … a violation of the espionage statute.”
Chief U.S. District Judge Ramona V. Manglona accepted his guilty plea and released him due to time he had already served in a British prison.
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