Wikileaks said on Monday that “Julian Assange is free” after he decided to plead guilty under an agreement with the United States Justice Department.
Assange left a British prison and was flown out of the United Kingdom on a flight to Bangkok to continue negotiations on a deal that would allow him to avoid imprisonment in the US.
Documents filed on Monday revealed Assange has agreed to plead guilty to a felony charge related to his alleged role in one of the largest US government breaches of classified material, as part of a deal with the US Justice Department.
Assange, who has been detained in a UK prison since 2019, faced likely extradition after a UK court ruled that he could be extradited in 2021. However, earlier this year, a High Court declared that he had a right to appeal that decision.
Assange is expected to appear in a federal court in the Northern Mariana Islands, a US Commonwealth in the Western Pacific, where he will plead guilty to a lone charge of violating the US Espionage Act and receive a 62–month sentence, while the extradition request is expected to be dropped.
With credit for time already served in a British prison, this would enable him to return to Australia, his country of birth.
