Five Instances When Julian Assange’s Wikileaks Revealed Scandals within the US Military
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange landed in Australia on Wednesday after being released from a British prison under a deal with US courts in which he agreed to publish US defense secrets. Australian Assange arrived in Canberra on a private jet in the final chapter of a journey that began with his release from Belmarsh prison in London and led him to the US Northern Mariana Islands, where he appeared before the courts.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been released from a US court after pleading guilty in a plea deal that ended a years-long legal battle. Assange pleaded guilty to conspiracy to obtain and publish national defense information in a court on the US island of Saipan on Wednesday as part of a plea deal with the US judiciary that will allow him to regain his freedom immediately, according to AFP correspondents.
Under this agreement, Assange, who exposed dangerous American defense secrets by publishing hundreds of thousands of secret official documents, will be able to leave the court in the Northern Mariana Islands and return to his country, Australia. Assange, 52, left Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands in the Pacific Ocean under a deal with the US judiciary that stipulates that he would plead guilty in exchange for a sentence of five years and two months in prison, a period equal to that which he spent behind bars in Britain, where he was fighting extradition to the United States.
The United States has accused Assange for years that the WikiLeaks files, which revealed information about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, put the lives of American citizens at risk. His wife, Stella, confirmed on Tuesday that he would be “free” after the US judge signed the plea deal while thanking his supporters on the X platform “who have been supporting him for years and years to achieve this goal.”
His wife, Stella, confirmed on Tuesday that he would be “free” after the US judge signed the plea deal while thanking his supporters on the X platform “who have been supporting him for years and years to achieve this goal.”He added that the Australian government is providing consular assistance to its citizens.
The Mariana Islands are located in the Pacific Ocean and are a US commonwealth. Still, they are much closer to Australia than the US federal courts in Hawaii or the US territories. Assange’s lawyer, Richard Miller, declined to comment when contacted by CBS. The BBC also contacted his US-based lawyer. Assange and his lawyers have always said the case against him is politically motivated.
US President Joe Biden announced last April that he was considering a request from Australia to drop the prosecution against Assange. In a legal victory for Assange last month, Britain’s Supreme Court ruled he had the right to lodge a fresh appeal against his extradition to the United States. This allowed him to challenge American assertions about how his potential trial would be conducted and whether his free speech rights would be violated.
