WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange appeared in court in Saipan in a deal that ended a 14-year legal ordeal
\n Canberra
\nWikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has arrived in Australia after he was freed by a United States court in Saipan under a plea deal.
\nAssange\u2019s plane landed in Canberra on Wednesday, hours after the 52-year-old pleaded guilty in a court in Saipan to a charge of espionage, related to obtaining and publishing US military secrets.
\nIn the US Pacific territory courtroom, District Judge Ramona Manglona had sentenced Assange to five years and two months \u2013 the time he spent in prison in the United Kingdom fighting extradition to the US \u2013 and said he was free to go.
\n\u201cWith this pronouncement, it appears that you will be able to walk out of this courtroom a free man,\u201d the judge said on Wednesday.
\n\u201cI can\u2019t stop crying,\u201d his wife, Stella, wrote on the social media platform X.
\nThe Australian had earlier flown into Saipan from the UK on a private aircraft. He walked into the court accompanied by members of his legal team and Australia\u2019s ambassador to the US, former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.
\nHe answered basic questions from the judge and listened as the terms of the deal were discussed.
\nAddressing the court, Assange said he believed the Espionage Act under which he was charged contradicted First Amendment rights in the US Constitution, but that he accepted that encouraging sources to provide classified information for publication could be unlawful.
\nAs a condition of his plea, he will be required to destroy information provided to WikiLeaks.
\nSaipan was chosen for the court appearance due to Assange\u2019s opposition to travelling to the mainland US as well as its proximity to his home in Australia, prosecutors said.
\nAustralia\u2019s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the hearing was a \u201cwelcome development\u201d.
\nAustralia used \u201call appropriate channels\u201d to support a \u201cpositive outcome\u201d in the case, he said.
\n\u201cRegardless of your views about Mr Assange, his case has dragged on for too long. There is nothing to be gained from his continued incarceration and we want him brought home to Australia,\u201d Albanese told reporters in Canberra.
\nFollowing the judge\u2019s ruling, a representative for Assange said the WikiLeaks founder would not be making a statement or taking questions.
\nHis lawyer, Jennifer Robinson, said it was an \u201chistoric day\u201d and thanked Albanese for helping make Assange\u2019s release possible.
\nFidel Narvaez, a former Ecuadorean diplomat who gave Assange political asylum at Ecuador\u2019s embassy in London in 2012, told Al Jazeera that he felt \u201coverwhelmed by joy\u201d that Assange was released.
\n\u201cI am celebrating, of course,\u201d Narvaez said, adding that Assange has been facing \u201cpersecution by the most powerful country in the world\u201d for 14 years, while simultaneously being abandoned by his own country.
\nNarvaez pointed out that Assange would probably not have taken a guilty plea deal had it been offered to him years ago, noting that this has set a precedent that will discourage others from repeating his actions in the future.
\n\u201cWho will want to replicate what Julian Assange and WikiLeaks did if they know what is going to come after them for publishing the truth? This is not a perfect picture, but Julian is free and I think the world is a much better place today than it was yesterday,\u201d Narvaez said.
\nBarry Pollack, another of Assange\u2019s lawyers, said his client had been the victim of an injustice.
\n\u201cThe prosecution of Julian Assange is unprecedented,\u201d he told reporters outside the court.
\n\u201cIn the 100 years of the Espionage Act, it has never been used by the United States to pursue a publisher, a journalist, like Mr Assange. Mr Assange revealed truthful, important and newsworthy information including revealing that the United States had committed war crimes, and he has suffered tremendously.\u201d
\nThe release of Assange and his return to Australia appears to mark the final chapter in a 14-year battle.
\nAssange spent more than five years in a UK high-security jail, and before that seven years inside the Ecuadorean embassy in London, as he fought accusations of sex crimes in Sweden, which were later dropped, and battled extradition to the US, where he faced 18 criminal charges.
\nAssange\u2019s supporters view him as being victimised because he exposed US military crimes in its conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. Washington has said the release of the secret documents put lives in danger.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange appeared in court in Saipan in a deal that ended a 14-year legal ordeal Canberra WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has arrived in Australia after he was freed by a United States court in Saipan under a plea deal. Assange\u2019s plane landed in Canberra on Wednesday, hours after the 52-year-old pleaded guilty […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":414805,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-414785","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n