WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange landed as a free man in his Australian hometown of Canberra on June 26 after his 14-year-long legal saga came to an end in Saipan, a remote tropical Pacific island in US territory.
In the final chapter of Assange's story as an accused in an espionage case, he landed in his native country in a private jet, where his wife Stella and his father were waiting for him at the airport with bated breath.
The naturally blonde 52-year-old had dodged multiple attempts at extradition to the US, a country he had embarrassed by leaking thousands of classified documents that revealed its wrongdoings in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
According to concerned officials, Saipan was chosen for the court appearance because Assange didn't want to travel to the mainland US, and its proximity to Australia was a factor.
However, Assange's freedom didn't come cheap, as his wife claimed that the cost of her husband's return flight was half a million dollars. She appealed for donations to cover the USD 520,000 debt for Julian's jet.
Taking to X (formerly Twitter), Stella posted a fundraising campaign and said, “Julian's travel to freedom comes at a massive cost: Julian will owe USD 520,000 which he is obligated to pay back to the Australian government for charter Flight VJ199.”
An editor and publisher from Australia, Assange was accused of an exposé in 2010 where he published classified defense documents, including the wrongdoings of the US government in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, on his platform WikiLeaks.
Assange's lawyer Jen Robinson said it was a "historic day" that "brings to an end 14 years of legal battles." She added, "It also brings to an end a case which has been recognized as the greatest threat to the First Amendment in the 21st century."
In the 3-hour long hearing, Assange pled guilty to one criminal count of conspiring to obtain and disclose classified US national defense documents but added that he believed the Constitution's First Amendment, which protects free speech, protected him.
The First Amendment of the US Constitution protects free speech, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom of the press.
"Working as a journalist, I encouraged my source to provide material that was said to be classified in order to publish that information," Assange told the court.
“I believed the First Amendment protected that activity but I accept that it was ... a violation of the espionage statute,” he added.
Assange, who was in custody in the UK's Belmarsh prison, struck a plea deal with the US Justice Department, according to which he would plead guilty to a single count of conspiracy to obtain and disseminate national defense information.
Following this, he was sentenced to 62 months—the time which he has already served in UK prisons—and thus, he is now a free man to return to his native country after his release.
In a post on X, WikiLeaks said that it would hold a press conference in the Australian capital at 9:15 pm (1115 GMT) on June 26, but did not confirm if Assange would be present.
In the espionage case that began nearly 14 years ago, Assange spent five years in Belmarsh prison in a small cell. He was arrested in 2019 while fighting extradition to the United States. Assange, who met his wife Stella while holed up in the embassy, married her in a ceremony in Belmarsh prison. They have two young children.
He also spent seven years in Ecuador's embassy in London to avoid being extradited to Sweden, where he faced accusations of sexual assault that were eventually dropped.
The US government had accused Assange under the 1917 Espionage Act in which he could have been sentenced to 175 years in prison.
The plea deal was announced two weeks before Assange was set to appear in court in Britain to appeal against a ruling that approved his extradition to the US.
His plea deal didn't come as a surprise, as US President Joe Biden was under mounting pressure to drop the long-running case against Assange.
In February, the Australian government also made an official request, which Biden said he would consider, instilling hopes among Assange supporters that his ordeal might end.
.jpg&w=3840&q=75)
