**Julian Assange Returns to Australia Free After 14-Year Legal Battle**
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has finally returned to Australia, marking the end of a 14-year legal saga. Assange’s plane touched down in Canberra on Wednesday, just hours after he pleaded guilty to a charge of espionage in a US court in Saipan, a Pacific territory of the United States. The charge was related to his role in obtaining and publishing US military secrets.
In the courtroom, District Judge Ramona Manglona sentenced Assange to five years and two months, equivalent to the time he had already spent in a UK prison fighting extradition to the US. “With this pronouncement, it appears that you will be able to walk out of this courtroom a free man,” Judge Manglona declared.
Assange’s wife, Stella, expressed her overwhelming relief on social media, writing, “I can’t stop crying.” Assange had flown into Saipan from the UK on a private aircraft, accompanied by his legal team and Australia’s ambassador to the US, former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. During the court proceedings, Assange acknowledged that while he believed the Espionage Act contradicted First Amendment rights, he accepted that encouraging sources to provide classified information could be unlawful. As part of his plea deal, Assange is required to destroy information provided to WikiLeaks.
The choice of Saipan for the court appearance was due to Assange’s reluctance to travel to the mainland US and its proximity to Australia, according to prosecutors.
Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese welcomed the development, stating that the Australian government had used “all appropriate channels” to support a positive outcome in the case. “Regardless of your views about Mr. Assange, his case has dragged on for too long. There is nothing to be gained from his continued incarceration, and we want him brought home to Australia,” Albanese said.
Following the judge’s ruling, Assange’s lawyer, Jennifer Robinson, described the day as “historic” and thanked Albanese for his efforts in securing Assange’s release. Fidel Narvaez, a former Ecuadorean diplomat who had granted Assange political asylum at Ecuador’s embassy in London in 2012, expressed his joy at the news. “I am celebrating, of course,” Narvaez said, adding that Assange had faced “persecution by the most powerful country in the world” for 14 years while being abandoned by his own country.
Narvaez noted that Assange’s guilty plea set a precedent that would likely discourage others from repeating his actions in the future. “Who will want to replicate what Julian Assange and WikiLeaks did if they know what is going to come after them for publishing the truth? This is not a perfect picture, but Julian is free, and I think the world is a much better place today than it was yesterday,” he said.
Barry Pollack, another of Assange’s lawyers, emphasized that his client had been the victim of an unprecedented injustice. “The prosecution of Julian Assange is unprecedented,” Pollack said. “In the 100 years of the Espionage Act, it has never been used by the United States to pursue a publisher, a journalist, like Mr. Assange. Mr. Assange revealed truthful, important, and newsworthy information, including revealing that the United States had committed war crimes, and he has suffered tremendously.”
Assange’s release and return to Australia mark the final chapter in a prolonged legal battle. He spent more than five years in a UK high-security jail and seven years inside the Ecuadorean embassy in London, fighting accusations of sex crimes in Sweden, which were later dropped, and battling extradition to the US, where he faced 18 criminal charges.
Assange’s supporters view him as a victim of persecution for exposing US military crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq. Washington, however, has argued that the release of the secret documents endangered lives.
Assange’s legal journey began in 2010 when he faced charges of rape and sexual assault in Sweden, which he denied. He sought refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London in 2012, fearing that the Swedish case would lead to his extradition to the US. Swedish authorities dropped the case in 2019, citing the passage of time, but UK authorities later took him into custody for not surrendering to the courts for extradition to Sweden.
In the US, Assange was charged with conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defense information following the massive WikiLeaks disclosure in 2010. WikiLeaks had released a video from a US military helicopter showing civilians being killed in Baghdad and thousands of confidential documents suggesting that the US military had killed hundreds of civilians in unreported incidents during the war in Afghanistan. These revelations prompted global reactions and intense scrutiny of American involvement in foreign conflicts.
Assange’s plea deal allowed him to receive credit for time served in the UK, meaning he would not be held in US custody. After the court hearing, Assange flew to Canberra, where he was greeted by cheers from supporters at the airport. His wife, Stella, expressed her gratitude and asked for privacy for their family as they begin to rebuild their lives.
Assange’s legal team and supporters have long claimed that the case against him was politically motivated and called on US President Joe Biden to drop the charges. In recent months, Biden had alluded to a possible deal pushed by Australian government officials to return Assange to Australia.
Prime Minister Albanese, who previously described the plea deal as a “welcome development,” said on Wednesday that he was pleased Assange was on his way home to reunite with his family. “This outcome has been the product of careful, patient, and determined work,” Albanese said, adding, “this is what standing up for Australians around the world looks like.”
Assange’s return to Australia marks the end of a long and tumultuous chapter in his life, but it remains to be seen what the future holds for the controversial figure and his ongoing fight for freedom of speech and transparency in government.
Source: Al Jazeera, BBC News, CNN
