WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is set to plead guilty on Wednesday to violating U.S. espionage law, in a deal that will end his imprisonment in Britain and allow him to return home to Australia.
This marks the conclusion of a 14-year legal odyssey for the 52-year-old.
Assange has agreed to plead guilty to a single criminal count of conspiring to obtain and disclose classified U.S. national defense documents, as per filings in the U.S. District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands.
He is scheduled to be sentenced to 62 months of time already served at a hearing in Saipan at 9 a.m. local time on Wednesday (2300 GMT Tuesday). The Pacific island was chosen due to Assange’s opposition to traveling to the mainland U.S. and its proximity to Australia, prosecutors stated.
Assange left Belmarsh prison in the UK on Monday after being bailed by the UK High Court. He boarded a flight that afternoon, WikiLeaks confirmed in a statement posted on social media platform X.
“This is the result of a global campaign that spanned grass-roots organizers, press freedom campaigners, legislators, and leaders from across the political spectrum, all the way to the United Nations,” the statement read.
A video posted by WikiLeaks showed Assange in a blue shirt and jeans signing a document before boarding a private jet operated by charter firm VistaJet.
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