Produced by: Tarun Mishra Designed by: Manoj Kumar
Julian Assange was released by a court in the US Pacific island territory of Saipan on Wednesday after pleading guilty to violating US espionage law. The court proceedings took place in the U.S. District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands.
During the three-hour hearing, Assange pled guilty to one criminal count of conspiring to obtain and disclose classified U.S. national defence documents. He stated that he believed his actions were protected by the First Amendment. “Working as a journalist I encouraged my source to provide information that was said to be classified in order to publish that information,” 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 Assange’s guilty plea and released him due to the time he had already served in a British jail. Assange had agreed to plead guilty to a single criminal count, according to filings in the court.
Assange left Saipan on a private jet accompanied by Australia’s ambassadors to the US and UK, according to flight logs. They are set to travel to Canberra, landing just before 7 pm local time (0900 GMT).
The U.S. territory in the western Pacific was chosen for the hearing due to Assange’s opposition to traveling to the mainland U.S. and for its proximity to Australia, prosecutors said. Dozens of media representatives from around the world attended the hearing, with more gathered outside the courtroom. Media were not allowed inside the courtroom to film the proceedings.
Stella Assange, Julian’s wife, commented on social media about his release, highlighting the intense media presence and the sensory overload he might experience after years of confinement. She said, “I watch this and think how overloaded his senses must be, walking through the press scrum after years of sensory deprivation and the four walls of his high-security Belmarsh prison cell.”
Assange, 52, spent over five years in a British high-security jail and seven years holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London as he fought accusations of sex crimes in Sweden and battled extradition to the U.S., where he faced 18 criminal charges. Assange’s supporters view him as a victim for exposing U.S. wrongdoing, while Washington argues that the release of secret documents put lives in danger.
The Australian government has been advocating for Assange’s release and has raised the issue with the United States several times. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said, “This isn’t something that has happened in the last 24 hours. This is something that has been considered, patient, worked through in a calibrated way, which is how Australia conducts ourselves.”