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The court gives the decision/ Julian Assange is released

2024-06-26 08:48:14, Aktualitet CNA

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was released by a US court on the US Pacific island of Saipan on Wednesday after pleading guilty to violating US espionage laws in a deal that allowed him to immediately return as a free man to birthplace, Australia.

His release ends a 14-year legal saga during which he spent more than five years in a high-security prison in the UK and another seven years in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he fought extradition to the United States, after facing 18 criminal charges.

During a three-hour hearing on Wednesday, Assange pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to obtain and publish classified US national defense documents.

But he said he believed his activity was protected by the First Amendment to the US Constitution, which protects freedom of expression.

"Working as a journalist, I induced my source to give me information that was said to be classified in order to publish it," Assange told the court.

"I believed that the First Amendment protected this activity, but I recognize that it was ... a violation of the espionage statute," he added.

Judge Ramona V. Manglona freed Assange after he pleaded guilty under a deal with US prosecutors and after he had already served five years in a London jail.

"We strongly believe that Assange should never have been charged under the Espionage Act," his US lawyer, Barry Pollack, said after the hearing.

He emphasized that the work of WikiLeaks will continue.

His British lawyer, Jennifer Robinson, thanked the Australian government for its years of diplomacy to secure Assange's release.

"It is a great relief for Julian Assange, his family, his friends and his supporters, as well as us and everyone who believes in freedom of expression, that he can now return to Australia and be reunited with his family." , she said.

Assange, 52, left court without answering questions from reporters gathered outside the court.

He left the island of Saipan on a private plane and is expected to arrive in the Australian capital Canberra in a few hours.

Assange had agreed to plead guilty to one criminal charge, according to the US District Court filing in the Northern Mariana Islands.

Prosecutors said it was decided to hold the hearing on the US Pacific island of Saipan because Assange had refused to travel to the US and because the island was close to Australia.

Assange spent more than five years in what Judge Mangola described as one of Britain's toughest prisons, as well as seven years holed up in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he fought sex crime charges in Sweden and extradition to USA.

While in Belmarsh prison, Assange married his partner Stella, with whom he had two children while he was hiding in the Ecuadorian Embassy.

His supporters see Assange as a victim because he exposed possible American wrongdoing and crimes, including the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Washington has said that the publication of secret documents by him put people's lives at risk.

The Australian government worked for his release and raised his case with the United States several times.

"This is not something that happened in the last 24 hours," Australia's prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said on Wednesday.

"This is something that has been considered, patiently, something that has been worked on carefully, because this is how we behave in Australia", he added./ REL