WikiLeaks founder Assange is released after pleading guilty and reaching a deal with the US authorities
The 5 years he spent in prison were counted as a punishment and he said it was enough
Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, pleaded guilty in a US court to disclosing military secrets and was released in accordance with the agreement reached with the US authorities.
Immediately after his release, he flew to Australia, where he comes from and where his family and wife now live, the BBC reports.
The court hearing was held in the Federal District Court of the Northern Mariana Islands (US territory) on the island of Saipan in the Pacific Ocean, where Assange arrived from a British prison.
Following his guilty plea to conspiracy to obtain and disclose classified national defence information, the court said it would be "fair and reasonable" to credit Assange with the 62 months he has already served in London's maximum security Belmarsh prison.
The more serious charges, which threatened a long prison term, were dropped.
"You can leave the courtroom a free man," the judge said after the hearing.
The case against Assange was dropped, and the US authorities also withdrew their extradition request.
The island territory for the deal was not chosen by chance – as stated in the court documents, Assange did not want to plead guilty on the continent, and Saipan is relatively close (3,200 km) to Australia, where the WikiLeaks founder has now gone.
Assange did not make any statements to the press and flew to the Australian capital Canberra after the hearing.
Background. As a reminder, former US intelligence officer Edward Snowden asked then US President Donald Trump to pardon WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who was facing the death penalty.
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