Free, Assange ends legal persecution and lands in Australia

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange landed, this Wednesday (26), in Canberra, capital of Australia, as a free man and on his way home, after years of judicial persecution from the United States. The plane landed at Canberra International Airport at 6:37 am, Brasília time, according to international vehicles.

The journalist pleaded guilty, this Tuesday (24), before an American court, in the Northern Mariana Islands, after an agreement with the US justice system.

The agreement ends 12 years of fighting against extradition to the United States, seven of them in political asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy, ​​in London, from 2012 to 2019, and another five years in the maximum security Belmarsh prison, also in the English capital, from 2019 to 2024.

Assange left prison this Monday morning in London and headed to Saipan, in the Northern Mariana Islands, an archipelago in the Pacific Ocean, close to Oceania. Before landing in American territory, the private plane in which the journalist was on board stopped in Bangkok, in the capital of Thailand, for refueling.

On Saipan, Julian Assange pleaded guilty to the crime of illegally disseminating national security material, for which he should be sentenced to five years and two months in prison — exactly the time he was imprisoned in the United Kingdom, which is why he leaves one free man from the court.

The US Department of Justice agreed to drop 18 espionage charges against him – instead charging him only with conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defense information.
The hearing in Saipan lasted about three hours. The judge in the case, Ramona Villagomez Manglona, ​​accepted the agreement between US prosecutors and Assange’s defense.

“You will be allowed to leave this court a free man,” the judge said after the sentencing.

The judge also said it was “fair” and “reasonable” to accept as a sentence the 62 months in prison that Assange has already served in the United Kingdom. Finally, Manglona also wished an early “happy birthday” to the creator of WikiLeaks, who celebrates his 53rd birthday next week.

From Saipan, the Bombardier Global 6000 executive jet continued with the journalist to the Australian capital, Canberra, from where Assange should finally go home.

Supporters and family, including his father, John Shipton, and his wife, Stella Assange, welcomed Assange to Canberra. It will be the first time that Assange will meet the two children he has with his wife outside of prison.

WikiLeaks said it will hold a press conference later this Wednesday. Shipton told the press that he hopes Assange does “normal things” after the judicial odyssey ends.