Julian Assangereleased from a prison United Kingdomtravels this Tuesday to an American island in the Peaceful where the founder of WikiLeaks He will plead guilty in court as part of an agreement that will allow him to regain his freedom. Pursued by US authorities for having revealed hundreds of thousands of confidential documents, the 52-year-old Australian will appear on Wednesday at 9:00 a.m. local time (23:00 GMT on Tuesday) before a federal court in the United States. Northern Mariana Islandsterritory of USA in it Peacefulaccording to court documents released early Tuesday morning.
“Julian Assange is free” and left United Kingdom and from the high security prison where he had been detained since 2019, he stated WikiLeaks In the net x. The organization, which released a 13-second video in which he is seen boarding a plane, reported that he took a flight at the airport in Stansted and he was congratulated that he could be reunited with his wife, Stella Assange, and his sons. The device landed in bangkok around 12:30 (05:30 GMT) for a technical stopover, journalists from the AFP. The plane will take off towards Saipanin the Northern Mariana Islandsaround 9:00 p.m. (2:00 p.m. GMT), said a Thai official.
There he is expected to plead guilty to “conspiracy to obtain and disclose information relating to national defense,” according to the documents, which also mention his accomplice, the US military officer. Chelsea Manningin this massive data leak.
Assange could be sentenced to 62 months in prisonbut having served a similar period of preventive detention in London, it is expected that he will be able to return free to Australia. Stella Assange He expressed “immense gratitude” to those who have mobilized “for years” to make his liberation a “reality.” Assange “He will be a free man once the agreement is ratified by the judge” on Wednesday, he explained to the BBC his wife and mother of two of his children.
The agreement involves her husband pleading guilty to one charge, which refers to “the obtaining and dissemination of information about national defense,” she said. Her mother, Christine Assange, said she is grateful that her son’s “ordeal” is coming to an end. “This shows the importance and power of secret diplomacy,” she said.
The Australian government reacted by saying that the case Assange “had gone on for too long” and that his detention was no longer of any interest, according to a spokesman for the prime minister.
The High Commissioner of the UN for Human Rights also welcomed his release and “significant progress towards a definitive solution to this case”said the spokeswoman. Elizabeth Throssel. “As we have repeatedly said, this case raised a number of human rights concerns,” he added.
Stella Assange revealed to the British Press Association agency that her husband has paid $500,000 for the flight that takes him from London to Australia.
This agreement, which ends a saga of almost 14 years, which includes seven years of confinement in the embassy of Ecuador of Londonsilk two weeks before a new key hearing before the British courts. On July 9 and 10, it was expected to examine the appeal Assange against his extradition to USA. Since 2019, when he was detained in a high-security prison in London, Assange fights not to be handed over to US justice, which is pursuing him for publishing more than 700,000 confidential documents on military and diplomatic activities, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Australian, charged with 18 counts, faced up to 175 years in prison under the Espionage Act. Government British approved his extradition in June 2022. However, in May two judges granted him the right to appeal.
For its part, Chelsea Manning She was sentenced in August 2013 to 35 years in prison by a military court, but was released after seven years following a commutation of her sentence by the president. Barack Obama.
The founder of WikiLeaks was arrested by the police british in April 2019 after spending seven years locked up in the embassy of Ecuador in Londonfrom where he sought to avoid extradition to Sweden in a rape investigation, which was dismissed that same year.
In recent years there has been an increase the demands to US President Joe Biden to drop the charges against him. Australia He presented a formal request in February, which the Democratic president said he was considering. “That the Prime Minister (Australian, Anthony Albanese) sometimes said publicly ‘enough is enough’, and for Parliament to back him up, was significant and absolutely contemplated by USA“, he said to the AFP Emma Shortis, international and security affairs researcher at the think tank The Australia Institute.
(With information from AFP)
