WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange returned to his native Australia aboard a charter plane this Wednesday, hours after plead guilty of obtain and publish US military secrets in an agreement with Justice Department prosecutors that concludes a long legal saga.
Assange He raised his right fist as he boarded the plane and his supporters at Canberra airport cheered him on. from the distance. Dressed in the same suit and tie he wore during his previous court appearance, He hugged his wife Stella Assange and his father John Shiptonwho were waiting on the runway.
The criminal case of international intrigue, which had been going on for years, came to a surprise end in a most unusual setting when Assange, 52, pleaded guilty in a US district court in Saipan, the capital of the Northern Mariana Islands.
The American community in the Pacific is relatively close to Assange’s native Australia and accommodated their desire to avoid entering the continental United States.
Assange was accused of receiving and publishing hundreds of thousands of war records and diplomatic cables that included details of US military irregularities in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Their activities generated a great support from defenders of press freedomwho heralded their role in exposing military conduct that might otherwise have been hidden from view and warned of a chilling effect on journalists.
Among the files released by WikiLeaks was a video of a 2007 Apache helicopter attack by US forces in Baghdad that killed 11 peoples, including two Reuters journalists.
