WikiLeaks announced that its founder, Julian Assange, is free and has left the UK on Monday afternoon. Assange had been imprisoned for five years in a maximum-security prison. This news came shortly after the U.S. judiciary announced that it had reached an agreement with the Australian citizen for a guilty plea in exchange for his release.
Australia quickly welcomed this end to a saga that lasted 14 years. A spokesperson for the Australian government said that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese “has been clear: he stated that the Assange case has dragged on for too long and there is nothing to be gained from his continued imprisonment.” He added that the Australian government is providing consular assistance to its citizen.
Julian Assange, 52, was photographed signing papers in front of British court officials. He has agreed to plead guilty to a criminal charge of conspiracy to obtain and reveal secret U.S. defence documents. This is part of a complex deal that experts say is good for ending his and his family’s suffering but sets a legal precedent by allowing governments to suppress investigative journalism and lets the U.S. pursue those who expose its crimes, even if they are not Americans or work outside the U.S.
WikiLeaks, from late 2010, published hundreds of thousands of secret U.S. military documents about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as hundreds of thousands of U.S. State Department diplomatic cables. These documents revealed how the U.S. empire enforces its control over other countries.
Assange was first arrested in the UK in 2010 based on a European arrest warrant, after Swedish authorities said they wanted to question him about alleged sexual crimes, which were later dropped. After being released on bail, he took refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy, where he stayed for seven years to avoid being extradited to Sweden. In 2019, after the new Ecuadorian government withdrew its support, he was captured from the embassy and taken to Belmarsh prison in London, which houses high-security prisoners, awaiting a decision on the U.S. request for his extradition.