Julian Assange, WikiLeaks Founder, Pleads Guilty in Court and Plans to Return to Australia
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange reached a plea deal on June 25 to settle a lengthy legal dispute with the U.S. government following one of the most significant leaks of classified information in U.S. history.
Mr. Assange admitted guilt to a single felony charge related to the release of classified U.S. military data, bringing an end to years of legal strife with the U.S. authorities. This resolution permits the 52-year-old to finally return home to Australia, restoring his freedom for the first time since 2012.
Through the plea deal with the U.S. Justice Department (DOJ), Mr. Assange confessed to one criminal offense of conspiring to unlawfully acquire and disseminate classified national defense information. This agreement allows him to evade extradition to the U.S. and forego any prison time in America, considering the 62 months he has already served in a UK detention facility.
Mr. Assange entered his plea in a court located in the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. territory near Guam, at approximately 9:45 a.m. local time. The choice of this venue was in part due to Mr. Assange’s hesitation to travel to the U.S. mainland and its convenient proximity to his homeland of Australia.
The Department of Justice anticipated Mr. Assange’s return to Australia following the conclusion of the court proceedings.
Charges Against WikiLeaks Founder
The guilty plea by Mr. Assange resolves a protracted legal dispute with the U.S. government arising from one of the most substantial leaks of classified information in U.S. history.
Prior to reaching this plea deal, Mr. Assange had been facing 18 criminal charges in the U.S., including violations of an espionage law and collaboration to compromise government computer systems. These charges stemmed from WikiLeaks’ publication of a vast trove of classified documents concerning the U.S. military and the Middle East in 2010.
These sensitive documents were provided by Chelsea Manning, formerly known as Bradley Manning, a former U.S. Army intelligence analyst turned whistleblower. They included materials like a 2007 video depicting an Apache helicopter attack in Baghdad resulting in civilian casualties, along with thousands of confidential files and diplomatic cables, some involving critical assessments of international leaders like Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Prosecutors in Washington asserted that the publication of these classified documents exposed human sources’ identities and posed a threat to lives.
Mr. Assange’s legal troubles began in 2010 when he was initially detained in the UK on a European arrest warrant related to a rape inquiry in Sweden, which was subsequently dropped.
