‘Julian Assange is free’: Wikileaks founder freed in deal with US

Assange to plead guilty to one charge of espionage and return home to Australia after decades fighting US extradition.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will plead guilty this week to violating espionage law in the United States, according to court filings, in a deal that will end his imprisonment in the United Kingdom and allow him to return home to Australia.

Assange, 52, agreed to plead guilty to a single criminal count of conspiring to obtain and disclose classified US national defence documents, according to filings in the US District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands.

Assange is due to be sentenced to 62 months of time already served at a hearing on the island of Saipan in the Pacific at 9am on Wednesday (23:00 GMT on Tuesday).

“Julian Assange is free,” Wikileaks said in a statement posted on X.

“He left Belmarsh maximum security prison on the morning of 24 June, after having spent 1901 days there. He was granted bail by the High Court in London and was released at Stanstead airport during the afternoon, where he boarded a plane and departed the UK.”