Julian Assange Released After Plea Deal With U.S. Justice Department
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been released from custody and has left the high-security Belmarsh prison, where he spent 1,901 days, according to WikiLeaks representatives on X (formerly Twitter). Assange’s release comes as part of a plea deal with the U.S. Department of Justice, which is not yet officially finalized, as he has currently been released on bail.
On June 26, Assange is scheduled to appear before a court in the Northern Mariana Islands (U.S.), on the island of Saipan, where he is expected to plead guilty to one of the 18 charges against him—specifically, conspiracy to obtain and disclose information related to U.S. national defense.
This charge of conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defense information was included in the superseding indictment filed by U.S. prosecutors in 2022, alongside charges of conspiracy to commit computer crimes.
After his guilty plea, under the terms of the agreement, Assange will be sentenced to 62 months in prison, which he has already served in the UK. The judge in Saipan will then formalize the agreement between Assange and the U.S. Department of Justice, after which Assange will be fully released.
Saipan was chosen by authorities “in light of the defendant’s unwillingness to travel to the continental United States to enter his plea and the proximity of this U.S. federal district court to the defendant’s country of citizenship, Australia, where we expect he will return after the proceedings,” according to a letter from the U.S. Department of Justice’s National Security Division dated June 24, 2024.
“This is the result of a global campaign involving the public, press freedom advocates, lawmakers, and leaders from across the political spectrum, up to the United Nations. All of this created the conditions for lengthy negotiations with the U.S. Department of Justice, which led to the plea deal, though it is not yet officially concluded. We will provide more information soon.
After more than five years spent in a 2×3 meter cell, isolated for 23 hours a day, Assange will soon reunite with his wife Stella Assange and their children, who have only known their father behind bars.
WikiLeaks has published groundbreaking stories about government corruption and human rights abuses, holding those in power accountable. As editor-in-chief, Julian paid a heavy price for these principles and for the public’s right to know.
Now, as he returns to Australia, we thank everyone who supported us, fought for us, and remained steadfast in the fight for his freedom. Julian’s freedom is our freedom,” WikiLeaks representatives wrote.
Background
Before his imprisonment in Belmarsh, Assange spent about seven years living in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he was granted asylum to avoid extradition to Sweden. In Sweden, he faced allegations of sexual assault, which he denied and feared would ultimately be used to extradite him to the United States.
In 2019, Ecuador revoked Assange’s asylum, canceled his Ecuadorian citizenship, and handed him over to British police, after which he was sent to a high-security prison. There, he spent years fighting extradition to the U.S., where he faced up to 175 years in prison. Later that year, Sweden dropped its investigation against Assange.