After reaching an agreement with the High Court in London, Julian Assange released from prisonso the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, celebrated that the activist is free.
“I celebrate the release of Julian Assange from prison. At least in this case, the Statue of Liberty did not remain an empty symbol; “She is alive and happy like millions in the world,” he wrote. AMLO in your X account.
Various Mexican politicians also joined in celebrating the release of Julian Assange, who will plead guilty to a serious crime in agreement with the United States Department of Justice, but will remain free.
As soon as the Australian activist and journalist was able to leave the 2 by 3 meter cell in which he had been held for 1,901 days, Assang took a flight to leave the United Kingdom, according to a WikiLeaks statement:
“Julian Assange is free. He left Belmarsh maximum security prison on the morning of June 24, after having spent 1,901 days there. The High Court in London has granted him bail and he has been released at Stansted Airport in the afternoon, where he boarded a plane and left the United Kingdom,” it read.
Julian Assange will appear in federal court in the Mariana Islands to plead guilty to one count of the Espionage Act, related to conspiracy to obtain and disseminate classified national defense information, according to the Department of Justice. The hearing is scheduled for Wednesday morning, local time, in Saipan, the largest of the islands.
Following his appearance and subsequent sentencing, Assange is expected to return to Australia. The choice of Saipan to hold the hearing responds to its geographical proximity to Australia and Assange’s refusal to travel to the territory of the United States.
Julian Assange gained notoriety in 2016 after his website, WikiLeaks, published emails from members of the Democratic Party, which prosecutors say were obtained by Russian intelligence agents. Although he was not charged in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, the case revealed in detail the role of the hacking operation benefiting then-Republican candidate Donald Trump.
Since 2010, the Justice Department had considered bringing charges against Assange over the publications of classified documents, although they doubted the case could hold up in court and feared the complications of prosecuting his actions; However, the position changed with the Trump administration, in which then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions prioritized his arrest starting in 2017.
Assange’s family and supporters have noted that his physical and mental health has deteriorated due to more than a decade of legal disputes, including seven years inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.
