GUWAHATI: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Wednesday, June 26, walked free after pleading guilty to violating US espionage law in a court in the US Pacific island territory of Saipan.
The development brought to an end to a 14 year legal saga; he flew out of Saipan, headed for Canberra, Australia soon after, according to reports.
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Assange’s freedom came after the US federal district court accepted a plea deal reached between him and the US government. The deal required him to admit to conspiring to obtain and disclose classified US national defence documents.
In return he was sentenced to time served, with no supervisory period or financial penalty, due to time already served in Belmont prison in London.
His release ends a legal saga that spanned more than a decade, in which Assange spent five years in the high-security jail and seven years at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, battling extradition to the US, where he faced 18 criminal charges.
Speaking to reporters outside the Saipan court, his lawyers called the prosecution “unprecedented” and an assault on free speech, but said it was time the fight came to an end.
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Immediately after the three hour hearing, the US government withdrew its extradition request from the UK, dropped all remaining charges pending in the US, and banned Assange from returning to the US without permission.
The justice department agreed to hold the hearing on the remote island due to Assange’s opposition to travelling to the US mainland and because of its proximity to Australia.
During the hearing, Assange said he had believed the US first amendment, which protects free speech, shielded his activities.
“Working as a journalist I encouraged my source to provide information that was said to be classified in order to publish that information,” he told the court. “I believed the first amendment protected that activity but I accept that it was … a violation of the espionage statute.”
US government attorney Matthew McKenzie, said Assange’s opinions of the first amendment and espionage act did not align with the facts.
In the end, chief US district judge Ramona V. Manglona accepted Assange’s guilty plea and released him without supervision due to time already served.
Closing the hearing, she said: “With this pronouncement it appears you will be able to walk out of this courtroom a free man. I hope there will be some peace restored.” Assange, appearing emotional, hugged his legal team.
