“It seems that this case ends with me here in Saipan,” declared the magistrate Ramona Villagomez Manglona in the early hours of this Wednesday in reference to the judicial saga of the founder of Wikileaks, Julian Assange. After the sentence, in which he endorsed the freedom agreement announced this week, he left to return to his home in Australia, where he has already landed.
“With this pronouncement it seems that he will be able to leave this courtroom a free man. I hope this serves to restore some peace,” the judge ruled. Assange will not spend any more time in jail after reaching an agreement with the US Department of Justice. In exchange, he admitted guilt to a single crime: violating the country’s espionage law.
Charter flight VJT199 has taken off from Mariana Islands (USA), where the last hearing took place, around 12:10 local time on Wednesday (4:10 Spanish time) and has landed in Canberra around 7:40 p.m. local time (11:40 a.m. in Spain).
Assange’s wife asks for time for the journalist
Assange was scheduled to hold a press conference at a hotel in the Australian capital later this Wednesday, but ultimately did not attend. “He wanted to be here, but he needs time,” declared his wife, Stella Assange. He also thanked all the people who have supported the journalist. “Without his support the political conditions would not have been met to obtain Julian’s release.”
“It has taken millions of people to work behind the scenes, protest in the streets for days, weeks, months, years… And we have achieved it“, she celebrated excitedly and amidst applause.
Stella Assange has also asked for empathy for her husband, as well as space and privacy “so that we can be a family“. “You have to understand everything that has happened,” he stressed. In this sense, he indicated that “he needs to recover.”
The activist’s wife has also denounced that “this case is an attack against journalism, against citizens’ right to know, and it should not have happened. Julian should not have spent a day in prisonbut today is a day of celebration because he is free.”
“There is no type of restriction. The case against Julian Assange has ended,” continued one of the members of the legal team. “You can return to your life“, he added. In addition, they have recognized that the negotiations have been complicated and that “there were times when we were not close to reaching any agreement.”
Espionage crime
The founder of Wikileaks admitted guilt for a crime of espionage based on conspiracy to obtain and disclose secret United States documents. In 2010, the platform published, among other atrocities, a video of American soldiers shooting civilians in Iraq.
In addition to information about the Iraq war, he also revealed numerous scandals about Afghanistan. Assange’s leaks thus exposed the shame of the democratic states of the global north to the embarrassment of the entire international community.
The journalist has spent more than five years in prison, since April 11, 2019. Assange He has been held in extreme conditions, isolated 23 hours a day in a two by three meter cell. The crime of espionage carries a maximum penalty of ten years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000, but the agreement sets the Australian free with immediate effect.
