Julian Assange pleads guilty in Mariana Islands court after agreement with the US

He WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange pleaded guilty this Wednesday (Tuesday afternoon, Colombia time) in a US court in Saipan, in the Northern Mariana Islands, as part of an agreement with the US Government that will allow him to regain freedom and return to his native country.

Assange pleaded guilty, as expected, to a criminal charge of conspiring to obtain and disclose classified US documents, in connection with the largest leak in US history in 2010.which included almost half a million documents about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Before pleading guilty, the WikiLeaks founder sat upright, with his hands carefully clasped and his expression neutral, answering some questions from Judge Ramona Villagomez Manglona about the implications of the plea agreement, which involves, among other things, the renunciation of your right to file appeals.

Finally, Assange leaned towards the microphone and, when asked if he was pleading guilty or innocent, responded: “Guilty on the information.”according to the British newspaper Guardian. The statement occurred without television cameras in the federal courtroom.

Following the WikiLeaks founder’s guilty plea, US prosecutors proceeded to read the agreement they reached with Assange’s defense and in which It is established that the accused will accept his guilt in exchange for a sentence of 62 months in prison, which he has already served in the high-security Belmarsh prison (United Kingdom).

The agreement establishes that he will be given credit for time served, so that Assange will be free after the court hearing and will be able to fly to his native Australia, where his wife, Stella, and two children are waiting for him.

Wikileaks, in fact, announced that Assange’s plane will leave the Northern Mariana Islands for Australia around 12:15 local time on Wednesday.

This was the arrival of Assange to the Northern Mariana Islands

The appearance to formalize Assange’s agreement with justice was held in the Mariana Islands due to the WikiLeaks founder’s opposition to traveling to the mainland. of the United States and the court’s proximity to Australia, according to a letter the U.S. Department of Justice sent to the court.

Assange arrived on Wednesday at 06:16 am local time in Saipan, the largest island and capital of the Northern Mariana Islands. according to the Flightradar portal, specialized in monitoring air routes, on board the charter flight VJT199 of the VistaJet company.

The aircraft landed in Saipan after a six-hour journey from Bangkok, where it remained for about eight hours and where it arrived for a technical stop after having been released on Monday from the maximum security prison where he was being held in the United Kingdom.

“NOW: Julian Assange has arrived on US soil on the island of Saipan to formalize the plea agreement that should never have happened. #AssangeJet,” the WikiLeaks profile posted on X just after the plane landed.

The WikiLeaks founder then went to the area court to plead guilty to one of the charges brought against him by the United States for the largest leak of classified documents in the country’s history.

The 52-year-old Australian arrived at the courthouse aboard a white vehicle. Before the expectation of dozens of cameras and journalists waiting for him, he got out of the vehicle dressed in a black suit, white shirt and ocher tie to enter the building.

With his white hair combed back, he did not answer questions from the press. However, when a reporter asked her if he preferred the climate of the Mariana Islands or London, she paused for a moment, but continued on her way without answering.

Once inside the court, journalists were able to watch from outside as he passed through security, leaving his belongings in a plastic container to pass through the metal detector, and collecting them once he had cleared the checkpoint.

Former Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón, one of Assange’s lawyers, celebrated that Assange “can finally be a free man after almost 14 years of struggle, deprived of liberty in the most adverse conditions.”

While the Australian government reacted by saying that the case “had gone on for too long” and that his detention was no longer of any interest.

He should not have been deprived of liberty for even a day for having published information of public interest

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights also welcomed his release and “the significant progress towards a definitive resolution of this case”, which “raised a number of human rights concerns”, according to spokesperson Elizabeth Throssell.

“He should not have been deprived of liberty for even a day for having published information of public interest,” said Rebecca Vincent, campaign director of Reporters Without Borders.

The plea deal marks the end of a legal saga in which Assange spent more than five years in a high-security British prison.

The founder of WikiLeaks was arrested by British police in April 2019 after spending seven years locked up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. from where he sought to avoid extradition to Sweden in a rape investigation, which was dismissed that same year.

In the United Kingdom, Assange had long been fighting against his extradition to the United States. In fact, that country’s justice system was scheduled to hold hearings next week to define Assange’s future under Washington’s demands.