WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been released from prison and pleaded guilty to breaking the law. Espionage Act. The WikiLeaks account on X, formerly Twitter, has announced its release after being granted bail by the London High Court. He also tweeted a video showing Assange boarding a plane at Stansted Airport. The WikiLeaks founder and former editor-in-chief is expected to appear in a courtroom in the Northern Mariana Islands on June 26 to finalize his lawsuit with the US government.
According to a letter obtained by the US Department of Justice The Washington Post, Assange specifically pleads guilty to “conspiracy to unlawfully obtain and disseminate classified information relating to the national defense of the United States.” He will also return to his country of citizenship, Australia, after the trial is over. CBS News reports that Justice Department prosecutors recommended a 62-month sentence, and that Assange will never serve time in a U.S. prison, given that he has already served more than five years in a UK prison.
Assange was the editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks, when the website published classified U.S. information about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and obtained by former Army intelligence officer Chelsea Manning. In 2010, Sweden issued an arrest warrant for Assange over allegations of sexual assault by two women. Swedish authorities fell In 2017, they investigated the rape allegations.
After Assange lost his appeal against the warrant, he sought asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy in London and stayed there for seven years. kicked out. Ecuador’s president at the time, Lenin Moreno, explained that his asylum was “unsustainable and no longer livable” because he displayed “obscene and aggressive behavior.” The London Metropolitan Police Service removed Assange from the embassy and arrested him on an extradition warrant on behalf of the United States.
In a statement released by WikiLeaks on his release, it was stated that Assange left Belmarsh maximum security prison “after 1,901 days there”. The organization said a “global campaign” by “press freedom campaigners, lawmakers and leaders from across the political spectrum” led to “prolonged negotiations with the US Department of Justice” that led to the agreement.
