Juliane Assange is free: the story of a man against

The founder of WikiLeaks he is a free man. Julian Assange, has already left the UK after agreeing to plead guilty to one of the crimes he is accused of. This is what the WikiLeaks statement on social media reports: «he left Belmarsh maximum security prison on the morning of June 24, after having spent 1,901 days there. He was granted bail by the High Court in London and was released in the afternoon at Stansted Airport, where he boarded a plane and departed the UK.”

«This is the result of a global campaign involving grassroots organizers, press freedom activists, legislators and leaders from across the political spectrum, all the way up to the United Nations. This created space for a long period of negotiations with the US Department of Justice, which resulted in an agreement that has not yet been formally finalized.”

Assange spent more than five years in a 2×3 meter cell, isolated 23 hours a day. “Soon he will be reunited with his wife Stella and their children, who only knew their father from behind bars.” The agreement with the US Department of Justice allows him to avoid imprisonment in the United States and return to Australia. The plane with Assange on board, after a technical stop in Bangkok, goes to the American territory of Northern Mariana Islands in the Pacific. Here Assange will face a judge for a plea bargain.

The 52-year-old agreed to plead guilty only to the crime of conspiracy to obtain and disseminate US national defense information. The accusation for Assange is that of have published approximately 700,000 classified documents relating to US military and diplomatic activities since 2010. This is one of the largest violations of classified American material. Justice Department prosecutors are expected to seek a 62-month sentence: equivalent to the five years Assange served in a maximum security prison in London while trying to avoid extradition to the United States in a long legal battle. The time spent in prison is recognized as equivalent to that of the sentence.

There were originally 18 charges against the founder of Wikileaks. He was charged in 2019 for his alleged role in leaking secret documents, crimes that would have carried a maximum of 175 years in prison. The documents published are confidential ones provided by former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning in 2010 and 2011. According to the prosecution, the dissemination of this news would have endangered confidential sources, activities related to the war in Iraq and information on Guantanamo Bay detainees. According to US officials, Assange pushed Manning to obtain thousands of pages of diplomatic cables. These documents reveal alleged American war crimes.

For years Assange has fought, since London, for years, extradition to the US and last month a UK court ruled that he had the right to appeal again to avoid trial in the US for his alleged crimes. For years you lived in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. From 11 April 2019 to 24 June 2024 he was incarcerated in the Belmarsh prison first for violating bail terms following controversial Swedish rape charges and then for an extradition request made by the United States of America on conspiracy charges.

There mother by Julian Assange said she is grateful that her son’s ordeal is finally coming to an end. «This demonstrates the importance and power of silent diplomacy. Many have exploited my son’s situation to advance their own agendas, so I am grateful to those invisible, hard-working people who put Julian’s well-being first. The last 14 years have put me to the test as a mother.”