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Julian Assange is a free man after agreeing to a plea deal with the United States. He left Belmarsh Maximum Security Prison on Monday en route to the United States territory of Saipan in the Mariana Islands where it’s expected he will plead guilty to a single charge with a sentence for the time already spent in solitary confinement.
“He was granted bail by the High Court in London and was released at Stansted airport during the afternoon, where he boarded a plane and departed the UK,” WikiLeaks, the organization Assange founded, said in a tweet early Tuesday morning.
Stella Assange, Julian’s wife, legal counsel, and mother to his two children, tweeted: “Julian is free!!!! Words cannot express our immense gratitude to YOU- yes YOU, who have all mobilised for years and years to make this come true. THANK YOU. tHANK YOU. THANK YOU.”
JULIAN ASSANGE IS FREE
Julian Assange is free. He left Belmarsh maximum security prison on the morning of 24 June, after having spent 1901 days there. He was granted bail by the High Court in London and was released at Stansted airport during the afternoon, where he boarded a…
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) June 24, 2024
Reports say he will plead guilty at a US court on Saipan to one charge of conspiracy to disseminate national security information, for which it is expected the judge will rule that the 1,901 days or approximately five years he spent imprisoned in a 2×3 meter windowless cell for 23 hours a day represents time already served.
Bruce Afran, a US constitutional lawyer, told investigative outlet Consortium News that a plea deal does not create a legal precedent that would endanger journalists in the future, as both Stella Assange and others have warned. The single count represents something that journalists do on a weekly basis regarding classified government information on all manner of affairs beyond national security.
Julian Assange boards flight at London Stansted Airport at 5PM (BST) Monday June 24th. This is for everyone who worked for his freedom: thank you.#FreedJulianAssange pic.twitter.com/Pqp5pBAhSQ
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) June 25, 2024
Mrs. Assange has already told the press that she and her husband will seek an official US pardon from their home in Australia as a means to ensure that her husband’s case cannot be used to prosecute journalists in the future.
“The fact that there is a guilty plea, under the Espionage Act in relation to obtaining and disclosing National Defence information is obviously a very serious concern for journalists and national security journalists in general,” she told Reuters.
On a human level, the couple’s two sons, fathered by Assange when he was in asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, have not been told of his freedom.
“All I told them was that there was a big surprise,” Mrs. Assange told the BBC earlier, saying the details of Assange’s release needed to be kept under wraps while they were traveling to Australia, and “obviously no one can stop a five and a seven-year-old from, you know, shouting it from the rooftops at any given moment”.
It’s also been reported in England that following the Australian Parliament’s resolution in February demanding Assange be allowed to come home, as even after 13 years in and out of British custody he has never been charged with a crime, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his consular staff in London had been working to free Assange. Assange’s father put the sudden liberation of his son down to “quiet diplomacy,” according to Jonathan Yerushalmy At The Guardian.
Furthermore, Australia’s most senior diplomat is on the plane with Assange, commensurate with Albanese’s comments that Australia had continued to provide support to Assange through consular activities. Sentencing on Saipan is due to take place tomorrow around 9 am local time, and though anything could happen, Afran suspects the US will act in good faith. WaL
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PICTURED ABOVE: Assange boarding his plane to Saipan. PC: Wikileaks, via X.
