GUWAHATI: Julian Assange has been freed from prison and is expected to plead guilty to a single US felony charge, but who is Julian Assange and what did he do?
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Julian Assange, born in 1971 in Townsville, Queensland, developed a keen interest in computers early on and was recognized as one of Australia’s top hackers by the early 1990s. In 2006, he founded WikiLeaks, an organisation that publishes leaked materials. Assange gained global attention in 2010 after WikiLeaks released a series of leaks provided by Chelsea Manning, a former US Army soldier. Among these leaks was a video showing a 2007 Apache helicopter attack in Baghdad by American forces, resulting in 11 deaths, including two Reuters journalists. The US government launched a criminal investigation, leading to Manning's conviction and imprisonment, though her sentence was later commuted. In November 2010, WikiLeaks released over 250,000 US diplomatic cables, some of which were published by the Guardian.
Assange made headlines again in 2016 when WikiLeaks published emails from Democratic party operatives ahead of the US presidential election. US prosecutors claimed the emails were stolen by Russian intelligence to interfere in the election in favor of Donald Trump. Assange has been praised by many as a hero for exposing US military actions in Iraq and Afghanistan, but his reputation has been marred by rape allegations in Sweden, which he denies.
In 2010, an arrest warrant for Assange was issued for two separate sexual assault allegations in Sweden. After a UK court ruled he could be extradited, Assange sought asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, fearing further extradition to the US. He remained there for almost seven years, during which relations with the Ecuadorian government soured. In 2019, Ecuador withdrew his asylum, allowing UK police to arrest him. Assange was subsequently detained on behalf of the US, which sought his extradition on 18 charges related to the theft of military files, facing up to 175 years in prison if convicted.
Assange has spent the past five years in a high-security prison in south London, denied bail due to being considered a flight risk. His family and supporters claim his physical and mental health have deteriorated. In 2021, a UK court approved his extradition to the US, but Assange won the right to appeal the decision. In early 2024, the Australian parliament called on the US and UK to allow Assange to return to Australia. President Joe Biden indicated he was considering dropping the prosecution against Assange, and Assange’s family credited his potential release to “quiet diplomacy,” thanking Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
Assange is set to appear in a federal court in the Northern Mariana Islands, where he is expected to plead guilty to one charge under the Espionage Act for conspiring to unlawfully obtain and disseminate classified national defense information. The extradition request is expected to be dropped, and Assange will not face additional charges. The hearing is being held in the Northern Mariana Islands due to Assange’s refusal to travel to the US mainland and the court’s proximity to Australia. Prosecutors have agreed to a five-year sentence, with the time already served in a British prison counting towards this, likely resulting in his immediate release after sentencing. If the judge approves the plea, Assange is expected to return to Australia.
