Julian Assange will ‘relaxation and recuperate’ at household dwelling in Australia

Julian Assange may head for a remote family home in Australia where he will ‘rest and recuperate’ and lead ‘an ordinary life’ if he walks free following a court date with a US judge on Wednesday, family members have claimed.

The WikiLeaks founder, 52, is currently en route to the Northern Mariana Islands, a tiny US-controlled territory in the south Pacific, where he is expected to plead guilty to a single espionage charge tomorrow.

Prosecutors are understood to have recommended a prison sentence of 62 months in custody in return for the guilty plea.

But Assange would not see the inside of a US prison on account of the five years he has already spent behind bars in the UK.

If the court hearing proceeds as expected, Assange will be free to return to Australia with no restrictions after a 14-year ordeal that saw him shelter for almost a decade in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London before being incarcerated. 

His wife Stella Assange said that the exact details of the plea deal will not be released until the judge signs off on it – but declared her husband ‘will be a free man’.

He is expected to live in his native land with no restrictions, with his father John Shipton claiming: ‘Julian will be able to enjoy an ordinary life with his family and his wife’. 

Meanwhile, Assange’s brother Gabriel Shipton said the WikiLeaks founder could move ‘to the Australian bush’ to ‘have a bit of quiet life for a while’. 

The life Assange plans to lead after his release is unclear – but he is expected to spend a significant amount of time recuperating from a five-year-stint in Belmarsh, where is health is said to have suffered considerably. 

He will also undoubtedly dedicate much of his time to his family.

Assange’s wife Stella has been fighting his case for several years, and their two kids have never seen their father outside of prison visitations.  

Stella, who has travelled to Sydney with their two sons to await Assange’s arrival following the court hearing tomorrow, told BBC Radio 4 Today: ‘It’s a whirlwind of emotions, I’m just elated frankly, it’s just incredible. It feels like it’s not real.

‘As his wife and for all of our family, the priority has always been that Julian should be able to free to regain his freedom.

‘He has been in Belmarsh Prison for over five years in relation to this outrageous case which is criminalising the publication and disclosure of information that incriminates states.’ 

She added: ‘He will be a free man once it has been signed off by a judge and that will be some time tomorrow.’ 

Assange’s mother Christine Assange said: ‘I am grateful that my son’s ordeal is finally coming to an end. This shows the importance and power of quiet diplomacy. Many have used my son’s situation to push their own agendas, so I am grateful to those unseen, hard-working people who put Julian’s welfare first.’

His father John Shipton said: ‘It looks as though Julian will be free to come back to Australia. My thanks and congratulations to all his supporters… that have made that possible, and of course, the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese.’

Shipton said he was ‘energised’ by the news, adding: ‘I don’t fade easily, you know. And neither does Julian. It must be a family trait.’

Assange’s brother Gabriel told Sky News: ‘I think now is the time for him to rest and really recuperate, be with his family and have a bit of a quiet life for a while.’

Pressed on where that quiet life would be and where home is, he added: ‘Hopefully somewhere quiet and out of the way where he can go outside and feel the sun on his face and be in the Australian bush or something like that.

‘So that he can have a chance to really rest and recover and spend some time with us. It will just be nice to enjoy a meal with him when he is back home in Australia.’ 

Assange is an Australian journalist, computer programmer and the founder of WikiLeaks, which gained global attention in 2010 for publishing a trove of US classified documents he obtained from US Army Intelligence officer Chelsea Manning. 

The leaks, which among other things exposed military wrongdoing in Iraq and Afghanistan, triggered a huge debate over press freedom.

His supporters see Assange as a hero for press freedom and free speech who held the US government to account for abuses of power, while critics paint him as a criminal who threatened national security. 

For the past five years, he had been incarcerated in Britain’s Belmarsh prison, fighting extradition to the US to face charges on conspiracy to commit computer intrusion and some 17 counts under the Espionage Act for publishing classified documents.

Prior to that, he had been sheltering in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London after he lost his appeal to avoid extradition to Sweden over rape and sexual misconduct charges that surfaced in 2010 – though Swedish prosecutors ultimately dropped the case in 2019. 

Assange married Stella, a South African-born lawyer who he met when she joined his legal team in 2011, while locked up in Belmarsh in 2022.

The couple have two children together, Gabriel and Max, who were conceived while he was in the Ecuadorian embassy. On Tuesday morning, Stella shared an image on X of her husband video-calling her from Stansted airport on Monday.

Stella said her husband is paying half a million US dollars for the flight which is taking him to Australia – a huge bill they are planning to rely on crowdfunding to help pay off. 

Asked about the conversations that led to his release, Stella said on Radio 4: ‘Well, it’s been so touch and go, we weren’t really sure until the last 24 hours that it was actually happening.

‘We were talking about – I don’t know what he needed to do and take from his cell and I also had to pack things up, and head out to Australia 24 hours before he left. So it’s just been non-stop for the past, I think, 72 hours. 

‘What there is an agreement in principle between Julian and the Department of Justice and that has to be signed off by a judge in these Northern Mariana Islands… where he is currently heading… he is in Bangkok for a layover.

‘Once the judge signs off on it, it is formally real. I’m also a bit limited as to what I can say right now about the agreement in principle.’

She confirmed the ‘charge concerns the espionage act and obtaining and disclosing national defence information’, adding: ‘The important thing is the deal involves time served. If he signed it, he will be able to walk [free].’

Stella continued: ‘The deal itself will be made public and I think it’s a very interesting deal. I can’t talk about it in detail, I certainly have views about the deal but I don’t want to jeopardise anything.’

She said that she took a flight to Sydney with their two children on Sunday – but that she has not told them about their father’s possible freedom yet.

She added: ‘They’ve never seen him outside of Belmarsh. All their interactions with Julian have been in a single visitor’s room inside Belmarsh Prison. It’s always been for a little more than an hour at a time. It’s been very restrictive.

‘He can’t walk around, he can’t go to the tuck shop – he wasn’t able to go to the tuck shop and buy a chocolate or anything. You see, I have to change my tenses now – it’s been so long that I’m not used to talking about Julian free in the present.’

Stella said that she and Assange have not had the opportunity to speak about the future yet. But she revealed: ‘The priority is for Julian to get healthy again. He has been in a terrible state for five years.

‘Just to be in contact with nature, that’s what we both desire for now. To have time and privacy, and start this new chapter.’

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has in recent months campaigned strongly for Assange’s release. 

He told parliament today that the journalist’s case ‘dragged on for too long, there is nothing to be gained by his continued incarceration and we want him brought home to Australia’.

‘We have engaged and advocated Australia’s interest using all appropriate channels to support a positive outcome and I have done that since very early on in my prime ministership,’ he said.

Albanese’s office told MailOnline that the Prime Minister would reveal more details about the case after the court hearing concludes on Wednesday. 

Australian Labour Party MP Julian Hill also waded in, saying: ‘No one should judge Julian for accepting a deal to get the hell out of there and come home. 

‘His health is fragile. Whatever you think of Assange he is an Australian and enough is enough.’ 

Other politicians have been less supportive, with Australia’s former foreign secretary Alexander Downer declaring: ‘Just because he’s Australian doesn’t mean he’s a good bloke.’  

Downer told BBC Radio 4 Today on Tuesday morning: ‘I don’t think we should walk past the fact that this is a very serious charge he’s admitted to so in that sense it’s no doubt appropriate…

‘I think most people in Australia would agree that it’s not appropriate to steal national security information and publish it. 

‘Governments have to have some degree of privacy in their communications… and by the way, he didn’t just release information relating to Iraq and Afghanistan… but he released a huge amount of information, much of which was very embarrassing and some of which endangered lives.’