WikiLeaks frontman Julian Assange yesterday returned home to Australia to start life as a free man after admitting he revealed US defense secrets in a deal that unlocked the door to his London prison cell.
Assange landed on a chilly Canberra evening in a private jet, the final act of an international drama that led him from a five-year stretch in the high-security Belmarsh Prison in London to a courtroom in a US Pacific island territory and, finally, home.
His white hair swept back, the Australian raised a fist as he emerged from the plane door, striding across the tarmac to give a hug to his wife, Stella Assange, that lifted her off the ground, and then to embrace his father.
Photo: AFP
Dozens of television journalists, photographers and reporters peered through the airport fencing to see Julian Assange, who wore a dark suit, white shirt and brown tie.
WikiLeaks wrote on X that it would hold a news conference in the Australian capital at 9:15pm.
Assange wanted to attend a news conference soon after his arrival, but “you have to understand, he needs time, he needs to recuperate, and this is a process,” Stella Assange told reporters. “I ask you please to give us space, to give us privacy, to find our place, to let our family be a family before he can speak again at a time of his choosing.”
Julian Assange’s long battle with US prosecutors came to an unexpected end in the Northern Mariana Islands where a judge accepted his guilty plea on a single count of conspiracy to obtain and disseminate national defense information.
The remote courtroom was chosen because of the 52-year-old’s unwillingness to go to the continental US and because of its proximity to Australia.
As part of a behind-the-scenes legal negotiation with the US Department of Justice he was sentenced to the time he had already served in London — five years and two months — and given his liberty.
“You will be able to walk out of this courtroom a free man,” the judge told him.
Julian Assange had published hundreds of thousands of confidential US documents on the whistle-blowing website from 2010.
He became a hero to free speech campaigners, but a villain to those who thought he endangered US security and intelligence sources.
“Working as a journalist, I encouraged my source to provide material that was said to be classified,” Julian Assange told the court.
“I believed the First Amendment protected that activity but I accept that it was ... a violation of the espionage statute,” he said.
His lawyer Jen Robinson told reporters it was a “historic day” that “brings to an end 14 years of legal battles.”
“It also brings to an end a case which has been recognized as the greatest threat to the First Amendment in the 21st century,” she said.
Australian Prime Minster Anthony Albanese said he was “very pleased” by the outcome.
“Regardless of your views about his activities, and they will be varied, Mr Assange’s case has dragged on for too long,” he told parliament in Canberra.
Albanese said he had spoken to Julian Assange by phone after his plane landed.
“I had a very warm discussion with him this evening, he was very generous in his praise of the Australian government’s efforts,” Albanese told a news conference.
“The Australian government stands up for Australian citizens, that’s what we do.”
The UN also hailed Assange’s release, saying the case had raised human rights concerns.
Additional reporting by Reuters
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