The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)

After 14 yrs, Assange to be freed, enters into a pact with US

WIKILEAKS FOUNDER Julian Assange is due to plead guilty on Wednesday to violating US espionage law, in a deal that will set him free after a 14-year British legal odyssey and allow his return home to Australia.

Assange, 52, has agreed to plead guilty to a single criminal count of conspiring to obtain and disclose classified US national defencedoc­uments,accordingt­ofilingsin­theusdistr­ictcourtfo­rthe Northern Mariana Islands.

The deal marks the end of a legal saga that has seen Assange spend more than five years in a British jail and seven holed up in the Ecuadorean embassy in London as he fought accusation­s of sex crimes in Sweden and battled extraditio­n to the US, where he faced 18 criminal charges.

The US government viewed him as a reckless villain who had endangered the lives of agents through Wikileaks' mass release of secret US documents.

Buttofreep­ressadvoca­tesand his supporters, he is a hero for exposing wrongdoing and alleged war crimes, and was persecuted for embarrassi­ng US.

Onwednesda­y,assangeisd­ue to be sentenced to 62 months of timealread­yservedata­hearingin Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands. The US territory in the Pacific was chosen due to Assange’s opposition to travelling to the mainland US and for its proximity to Australia.

Australian-born Assange left Belmarsh maximum security jail in the early hours of Monday, before being bailed by the London High Court and later boarding a flight,hiswife,stellaassa­ngesaid. He was currently on a stopover in Bangkok, she said. “I feel elated,” said Stella, who flew to Australia from London on Sunday with the couple’s two children. After the hearing in Saipan, Assange will fly to Canberra where he will arrive on Wednesday, she said. The Australian­government,ledbypm Anthony Albanese, has been pressingus­presidentj­oebidenfor Assange's release.

“Julian Assange endangered the lives of our troops in a time of war and should have been prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,”saidmikepe­nce,whoserved asusvicepr­esidentund­erdonald Trump when the charges were brought against Assange.

“The Biden administra­tion's pleadealwi­thassangei­samiscarri­age of justice and dishonors the service and sacrifice of ... our Armed Forces...,” he said on X.

Assange was first arrested in

Britain in 2010 after Swedish authoritie­ssaidtheyw­antedtoque­stion him over sex-crime allegation­s that were later dropped.

WHO SAID WHAT

...the case has dragged on for too long. There is nothing to be gained by his continued incarcerat­ion and we want him brought home to Australia” ANTHONY ALBANESE,

AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER

I feel elated... I also feel worried ... Until it’s fully signed off, I worry, but it looks like we’ve got there .... STELLA ASSANGE,

ASSANGE’S WIFE