Author: Park Minwoo
SAIPAN, Northern Mariana Islands (Reuters) – WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was released from custody and returned to Australia on Wednesday after pleading guilty to violating U.S. espionage laws in a court on the Pacific island of Saipan.
Assange’s release ends a 14-year legal saga in which Assange spent more than five years in a high-security prison in Britain and sought asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London for seven years while fighting extradition to the United States. , and faces 18 criminal charges in the United States.
During a three-hour hearing, Assange pleaded guilty to one criminal count of conspiring to obtain and disclose classified defense documents but said he believed his activities were protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which protects free speech.
“As a journalist, I encourage my sources to provide information that is said to be confidential so that it can be published,” he told the court.
“I believe the First Amendment protects this activity, but I recognize that it was…a violation of the Espionage Act.”
Chief U.S. District Judge Ramona V. Manglona accepted his plea and released him because he had already served time in a British prison.
His U.S. attorney, Barry Pollack, told reporters outside court: “We firmly believe that Mr. Assange should never have been charged under the Espionage Act and should not have been engaged in the activities that journalists engage in every day.”
He said WikiLeaks’ work will continue.
His British and Australian lawyer Jennifer Robinson thanked the Australian government for its years of diplomatic efforts to secure Assange’s release.
“It is a relief to Julian Assange, his family, his friends, his supporters, us and everyone who believes in free speech around the world that he can now return to Australia and be reunited with his family. One breath,” she said.
Assange, 52, left the courtroom through a crowd of television cameras and photographers without answering questions before waving his hand as he entered a white SUV.
According to the flight log, he will leave Saipan on a private plane, accompanied by Australia’s ambassadors to the United States and the United Kingdom, heading to the Australian capital Canberra, and is expected to land around 7 p.m. (0900 GMT).
Assange agreed to plead guilty to one criminal count, according to documents filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands.
Prosecutors said the U.S. territory in the western Pacific was chosen because of his objections to traveling to the U.S. mainland and its proximity to Australia.
Dozens of media outlets from around the world attended the hearing, and even more gathered outside the court to cover the proceedings. The media will not be allowed into the court to film the hearing.
Stella Assange, wife of the WikiLeaks founder, said on social media platform How overloaded his senses must have been walking within the four walls of a prison cell.
long legend
Australian-born Assange spent more than five years in a high-security prison in the UK and more than seven years in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he fought sex crimes charges and served as a He is fighting extradition to the United States, where he faces 18 criminal charges.
Assange’s supporters view him as a victim for exposing U.S. wrongdoing and potential criminality, including in the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. Washington said leaking secret documents would put lives at risk.
The Australian government has advocated for his release and has repeatedly raised the issue with the United States.
“This is not what happened in the last 24 hours,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said at a news conference on Wednesday.
“It’s something that’s been done thoughtfully, patiently, in a calibrated way and that’s the way things are done in Australia.”
