Assange declared a "free man" under plea deal with US justice system
A US judge granted WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange his freedom on Wednesday in a plea deal that ended years of legal drama over the disclosure of military secrets.
"With this pronouncement, it appears that you will be able to walk out of this court a free man," Judge Ramona V. Manglona said in a courtroom on Saipan, in the Northern Mariana Islands, a US territory in the Pacific.
However, the 52-year-old Australian will be barred from returning to the United States without authorisation, the Justice Department said in a statement.
Assange, who is being sued by US authorities for disclosing hundreds of thousands of confidential documents, pleaded guilty in court to one count of "conspiracy to obtain and disclose information relating to national defence".
"Working as a journalist, I motivated my source to provide material that was said to be classified," the WikiLeaks founder, dressed in a black suit and ochre tie, told the court.
The court sentenced him on Wednesday to five years and two months in prison, equivalent to the time he spent in detention in the UK while fighting extradition to the United States, so he will not have to spend any more time in jail.
Looking tired but relaxed, Assange laughed briefly with Kevin Rudd, Australia's ambassador to the United States, during a break in the hearing.
"Historic day"
"Today is a historic day. It puts an end to 14 years of legal battles," Assange's lawyer Jen Robinson said on Wednesday.
The courtroom on Saipan was packed with journalists and local villagers, many dressed in colourful Hawaiian-style shirts.
After the hearing, Assange left the court without making any statements to the press.
He immediately boarded a private plane which, according to WikiLeaks, would take him to Canberra, the capital of Australia.
The Northern Mariana Islands territory was chosen for the hearing because of Assange's refusal to go to the US mainland and its proximity to his home country.
Former Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón, one of Assange's lawyers, welcomed the fact that "he can finally be a free man after almost 14 years of struggle, deprived of his freedom in the most adverse conditions".
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights also welcomed his release and "significant progress towards a definitive resolution of this case", which "raised a number of human rights concerns", according to spokesperson Elizabeth Throssell.
"He should not have been deprived of his liberty for a day for having published information of public interest," said Rebecca Vincent, campaign director for Reporters Without Borders.
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva hailed "a victory for democracy and the fight for press freedom". "The world is a little better and less unjust today," he added.
The Nicaraguan government also hailed his release in a statement, saying Assange's publications "allowed the world to learn more of the lies that (...) exposed, in all their wretched and brutal intensity, imperialist barbarism in so many parts of the world".
The Australian's wife, Stella Assange, has launched an appeal for funding to cover the $520,000 her husband has to pay back to the Australian government after chartering the flight between London and Australia.
A 14-year saga
The settlement brings to an end a nearly 14-year legal saga, including seven years of confinement at the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
Since 2019, when he was detained in a high-security prison in London, Assange has been fighting to avoid being handed over to the US justice system, which is pursuing him for publishing more than 700,000 confidential documents on military and diplomatic activities, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Australian, charged with 18 counts, faced up to 175 years in prison under the Espionage Act.
The British government approved his extradition in June 2022. However, in May two judges granted him the right to appeal.
Seven years in the Ecuadorian Embassy
The WikiLeaks founder was arrested by British police in April 2019 after spending seven years holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, from where he sought to avoid extradition to Sweden in a rape investigation, which was dismissed later that year.
In recent years, there had been increasing calls for US President Joe Biden to drop the charges against him. Australia made a formal request in February, which the Democratic leader said he was considering.
"That the (Australian) Prime Minister (Anthony Albanese) sometimes said publicly 'enough is enough', and that parliament backed him up, was significant and absolutely contemplated by the United States," Emma Shortis, a researcher on international and security affairs at think tank The Australia Institute, told AFP.