Assange Secures Freedom with Plea Deal
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange pleaded guilty to a single felony charge for publishing US military secrets in a deal with Justice Department prosecutors that secures his freedom and concludes a drawn-out legal saga that raised divisive questions about press freedom and national security.
The plea was entered in federal court in Saipan, the capital of the Northern Mariana Islands, a US commonwealth in the Pacific. He arrived at court shortly before the hearing was to begin, wearing a dark suit with a tie loosened at the collar, and entered the building without taking questions.
A private plane carrying the whistleblower took off from US territory, journalists said. WikiLeaks said the plane was bound for Canberra in Assange's native Australia.
Though the deal with prosecutors required him to admit guilt to a single felony count, it will permit him to return to his native Australia without spending any time in an American prison. He had been jailed in the United Kingdom for the last five years, fighting extradition to the United States on an Espionage Act indictment that could have carried a lengthy prison sentence in the event of a conviction.
The abrupt conclusion enables both sides to claim a degree of victory, with the Justice Department able to resolve without trial a case that raised thorny legal issues and that might never have reached a jury at all given the plodding pace of the extradition process. Meanwhile, Assange’s wife, Stella,said that she was "elated" at the news as her husband flew on a chartered jet to Saipan en route to walking free.
WikiLeaks, the secret-spilling website that Assange founded in 2006, applauded the announcement of the deal, saying it was grateful for "all who stood by us, fought for us, and remained utterly committed in the fight for his freedom."
