Wikileaks: Julian Assange freed in US plea deal
//Summary - Level-C2//
Julian Assange, Wikileaks founder, has struck a plea deal with U.S. authorities, ending his prolonged legal battle. He's expected to plead guilty to a single conspiracy charge to obtain and disclose classified information, avoiding U.S. detention. After leaving the U.K.'s Belmarsh prison, Assange is set to return to Australia, marking a significant resolution to his contentious case.
1)
After a years-long legal saga, Wikileaks says that founder Julian Assange has left the UK after reaching a deal with US authorities that will see him plead guilty to criminal charges and go free.
Assange, 52, was charged with conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defence information.
2)
For years, the US has argued that the Wikileaks files - which disclosed information about the Iraq and Afghanistan wars - endangered lives.
Assange spent the last five years in a British prison, from where he was fighting extradition to the US.
3)
According to CBS, the BBC's US partner, Assange will spend no time in US custody and will receive credit for the time spent incarcerated in the UK.
Assange will return to Australia, according to a letter from the justice department.
On X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, Wikileaks said that Assange left Belmarsh prison on Monday after 1,901 days in a small cell.
4)
He was then "released at Stansted airport during the afternoon, where he boarded a plane and departed the UK" to return to Australia, the statement added.
Video shared online by Wikileaks appear to show Assange, dressed in jeans and a blue shirt, being driven to Stansted before boarding an aircraft.
5)
The BBC has been unable to verify the video independently.
His wife, Stella Assange, tweeted thanks to his supporters "who have all mobilised for years and years to make this come true".
The deal - which will see him plead guilty to one charge - is expected to be finalised in a court in the Northern Mariana Islands on Wednesday, 26 June.
6)
The remote Pacific islands, a US commonwealth, are much closer to Australia than US federal courts in Hawaii or the continental US.
Agence France Press quoted a spokesperson for Australia's government as saying that the case had "dragged on for too long".
His attorney, Richard Miller, declined to comment when contacted by CBS. The BBC has also contacted his US-based lawyer.
He and his lawyers had long claimed that the case against him was politically motivated.
7)
In April, US President Joe Biden said that he was considering a request from Australia to drop the prosecution against Assange.
In a victory the following month, the UK High Court ruled that Assange could bring a new appeal against extradition to the US, allowing him to challenge US assurances over how his prospective trial would be conducted and whether his right to free speech would be infringed.
After the ruling, his wife Stella told reporters and supporters that the Biden administration "should distance itself from this shameful prosecution".
8)
US prosecutors had originally wanted to try the Wikileaks founder on 18 counts - mostly under the Espionage Act - over the release of confidential US military records and diplomatic messages related to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Wikileaks, which Assange founded in 2006, claims to have published over 10 million documents in what the US government later described as "one of the largest compromises of classified information in the history of the United States".
9)
In 2010, the website published a video from a US military helicopter which showed more than a dozen Iraqi civilians, including two Reuters news reporters, being killed in Baghdad.
One of Assange's most well-known collaborators, US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning, was sentenced to 35 years in prison before then-president Barack Obama commuted her sentence in 2017.
Assange also faced separate charges of rape and sexual assault in Sweden, which he denied.
10)
He spent seven years hiding in Ecuador's London embassy, claiming the Swedish case would lead him to be sent to the US.
Swedish authorities dropped the case in 2019 and said that too much time had passed since the original complaint, but UK authorities later took him into custody. He was tried for not surrendering to the courts to be extradited to Sweden.
11)
Even amid long-running legal battles, Assange has rarely been seen in public and for years has reportedly suffered from poor health, including a small stroke in prison in 2021.
Wikileaks: Julian Assange freed in US plea deal
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crgggyvp0j9o
Julian Assange flies out of UK after release from prison: WikiLeaks | ABC News
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeKSUNxZvNY
WikiLeaks says Julian Assange has been released from Belmarsh Prison and departed the United Kingdom after reaching a deal with US prosecutors. UK court documents suggest the Wikileaks founder has agreed to plead guilty to espionage charges in exchange for his freedom. ABC reporter Carrington Clarke says Mr Assange's plight had become a political issue in the United States ahead of an expected presidential showdown between Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
Assange, who leaked classified information, released from British prison in plea deal with US authorities
https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/23d7373d459307862f062103c7b19c7b603f3c9f
Breaking news: Julian Assange is free, leaves Belmarsh prison and boards a plane, 2024.06.25.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s37JzM565CA
Add info No.1)
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange strikes plea deal with the U.S.
https://www.npr.org/transcripts/nx-s1-5017953
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has entered into a plea deal with the U.S. government. The plea hearing is expected later this week, and it could bring an end to years of uncertainty and delay. NPR justice correspondent Carrie Johnson has been following the story, and she's on the line with us now to talk more about it. Hi, Carrie.
CARRIE JOHNSON, BYLINE: Hey, Ailsa.
CHANG: OK, so the Julian Assange case, I mean, it's been bouncing through the courts for years. What exactly is this latest?
JOHNSON: Some big news tonight - Julian Assange has agreed to plead guilty to a single charge in this case. That's conspiracy to obtain and disclose information related to the national defense. He's likely to enter a plea in this case in a U.S. federal court in Saipan, part of the Northern Mariana Islands, later this week. And under the terms of that deal, he would face about five years in prison. That's one of the longest sentences ever in a case like this. Remember, Julian Assange has already served that time in the United Kingdom in the Belmarsh Prison, where he's been waiting out extradition proceedings for years.
CHANG: Exactly. And at the time that the Justice Department charged Assange, authorities said that, you know, this case was one of the largest compromises of classified information in history. Can you just remind us - what kind of information are we talking about here that was at issue?
JOHNSON: Yeah, a grand jury in Virginia indicted Julian Assange on 17 Espionage Act charges. The indictment accused him of working with the former military private, Chelsea Manning, to get records related to the war in Iraq and the war in Afghanistan. Assange also published sensitive cables from the State Department. Prosecutors and American intelligence analysts said Assange failed to black out names of American informants overseas, and that put their lives at risk - really serious stuff.
CHANG: But the thing is Carrie, the Justice Department had been working to bring Assange to the U.S. to face trial - right? - filing court papers about that just this year. So what changed exactly?
JOHNSON: Well, one of the things that changed is that leaders in Australia had really been heavily lobbying the White House. They pointed out President Obama shortened the prison sentence for Chelsea Manning and that the Assange case had continued to drag on for years and years. Julian Assange is a native Australian. He's expected to go back there after his court proceeding ends. And President Joe Biden got a question about all this back in April at a news conference. Biden said he was considering the request to send Assange home at that time.
CHANG: OK, so what's been the reaction so far to this plea deal?
JOHNSON: Well, it's worth noting that while Julian Assange has not very many fans in the U.S. Justice Department, the State Department or the intelligence community, there are several human rights groups and media organizations that have been vocal supporters of his. They've been arguing for years now that these charges against Julian Assange could have broad implications and that it could mean that a future Justice Department would find it easier to charge reporters with crimes for publishing national security secrets. The Obama Justice Department actually never filed charges against Julian Assange. It was the Trump Justice Department that finally took that step years after the leaks and the publication.
CHANG: That's right. And finally, Carrie, I mean, you know, this case, it's taken so many turns over the years. It's been this total international saga, if you will. Can you remind us of some of those twists and turns?
JOHNSON: Some really wild stuff - Julian Assange first had a run-in with authorities in Sweden who were pursuing him in a sexual assault case. He wound up spending seven years hiding out in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. By the end of that experience, his personal habits had really annoyed officials there. Assange wasn't too happy either. Assange then spent another several years incarcerated in the U.K. The plea deal would finally resolve those charges, but whether this is the last chapter of this bizarre story really remains to be seen.
CHANG: That is NPR's Carrie Johnson. Thank you so much, Carrie.
JOHNSON: My pleasure.
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange walks free after plea deal in US court | BBC News
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1TxHcDD4Kk
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has walked free from a US court after pleading guilty in a deal to end a years-long legal battle.
Following the hearing held in the Northern Mariana Islands, a US territory, he faces no further prison time and is due to fly home to Australia.
Assange was pursued by US prosecutors for leaking a vast amount of secret military information and faced a long sentence in a high-security prison.
Last week, he signed a deal with the US that would see him plead guilty to one espionage charge instead of the 18 he initially faced.
WikiLeaks’s Assange arrives in Australia following release on US plea deal
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange appeared in court in Saipan in a deal that ended a 14-year legal ordeal.
Add info No.2)
The significance of Julian Assange's release [Yoshihisa Oikawa] [Breaking News]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqoNSAY5jrI
A)
In recent years, Julian Assange has become a symbol of the struggle against globalism. He founded WikiLeaks, which published classified US government documents between 2010 and 2011. The documents were leaked by journalists and published by WikiLeaks.
B)
The US government responded by charging Assange with endangering human life by revealing the names of intelligence agents. As Assange is an Australian citizen and was in the UK at the time, the US asked the UK to extradite him. A UK court ruled in December 2021 that the extradition was permissible, but Assange's legal team appealed the decision, claiming it was unfair.
C)
Assange took refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London for almost seven years from 2012 but was arrested by the Metropolitan Police in 2019 and held in a UK prison for the next five years. Assange was held in solitary confinement, although he had not been convicted of any crime.
D)
In 2024, Assange was finally released, but only after a plea bargain. He pleaded guilty to a felony, and five years of imprisonment were added to his sentence. The deal allowed the US government to release Assange while avoiding criticism that it had violated the First Amendment.
E)
This case shows how the US and UK governments protect the interests of the globalists and suppress their opponents. Assange's case is an example to other journalists, warning them of the risks of standing up to Washington.
F)
After Assange's release, future developments will be watched to see if Trump wins the next election, the expansion of anti-globalist forces in Europe and the outcome of the war in Ukraine. The globalists will do whatever it takes to survive. Julian Assange will continue to be an important symbol of resistance to globalism.
Add info No.3)
WikiLeaks
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%A6%E3%82%A3%E3%82%AD%E3%83%AA%E3%83%BC%E3%82%AF%E3%82%B9
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WikiLeaks
https://wikileaks.org/
The FAQ on the WikiLeaks site once said: "Visitors will find WikiLeaks to be very similar in appearance to Wikipedia. Anyone can post or edit a new article. Whistleblowers can remain anonymous, even if unfamiliar with the Internet, and their identities cannot be revealed by anyone else. They can publicly discuss leaked documents to determine their credibility and integrity. They can discuss their views of the leaked documents and the circumstances that led to them and publish their collective wisdom. They can also read or write supplementary articles about the leaked documents, incorporating background information and history. Ultimately, the documents will be exposed to thousands, revealing their political meaning and authenticity."
However, in response to early concerns that the wiki model would automatically and indiscriminately expose all classified records, this approach was later revised. The original FAQ statement that "anyone can post to WikiLeaks" has now been dropped and replaced with "anyone can post comments to WikiLeaks." Posts are reviewed by anonymous reviewers within WikiLeaks, and some are published, and some are not.
Julian Assange: The Whistleblower | SBS Dateline Archives
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3M0FnvAPJI0
