Assange pleads GUILTY to a single spy cost in return for freedom

Julian Assange has walked free from court and will soon fly home to Australia after pleading guilty to a single espionage charge.

The WikiLeaks founder has just been released without probation or supervision after a hearing in a US federal court on the Pacific island of Saipan.

However, he is banned from entering the US ever again without permission from American authorities. 

A plea deal with American prosecutors paved the way for him to return home without fear of arrest after 14 years as a wanted criminal suspect.

Assange was wanted for espionage since 2010 after WikiLeaks released thousands of classified US military documents, and for unrelated rape charges in Sweden.

He fled to the Ecuadorian embassy in London in June 2012 when he lost his appeal against extradition to Sweden, and spent seven years hiding there until he was kicked out and locked up in a top-security prison since April 2019. 

Judge Ramona V Manglona accepted his guilty plea and debated whether to fine Assange up to US$150,000 or order probation or supervised release.

After discussion with Assange’s lawyer Barry Pollack and US Attorney Matthew McKenzie, she decided against either and let him walk out a free man.

‘You will be able to walk out of this courtroom a free man. I hope there will be some peace restored,’ Manglona declared.

‘Given the factual basis that accounts the whole saga of events that constitutes the basis for this very serious espionage charge against you…I am in fact sentencing you to a period of time served,’ she said.

‘I am not imposing any period of supervised release.’

The judge noted that the island was soon to celebrate 80 years of its own freedom. 

‘Now there is some peace, you need to restore with yourself when you walk out and pursue your life as a free man,’ she said.

An emotional Assange could barely speak as he said ‘I do’ after being asked if he understood the details of the agreement.

US Attorney Matthew McKenzie then said the US would withdraw its extradition request for Assange in the UK.

Assange stood as the judge wrapped up proceedings and declared the case over. 

‘With that… Mr Assange it’s apparently an early happy birthday to you, I understand your birthday is next week. I hope you will start your new life in a positive manner,’ she said.

Assange moments later walked out of the court to huge cheers from his supporters, giving them a wave but not saying anything before getting into a waiting car. 

He was driven directly to the airport where he flew out on Flight VJT199, which departed at 1pm on Wednesday, local time.

The flight was delayed from its original 12.10pm departure time, likely to accommodate Assange arriving from the courthouse.

Assange will land in Canberra, Australia, at 7.39pm local time, where he will be reunited with his wife Stella and two children.

The US Justice Department issued a lengthy statement announcing Assange’s guilty plea, and revealing he was banned from entering the country.

‘Following the imposition of sentence, he will depart the United States for his native Australia. Pursuant to the plea agreement, Assange is prohibited from returning to the United States without permission,’ it said.

The WikiLeaks founder wore a suit and tie as he arrived at the US District Court about 8am local time on Wednesday (11pm Tuesday London time, 6pm Tuesday New York time), ahead of the hearing, which began at 9am local time.

Local media reported that almost all of the seats in the public gallery of the court, the smallest, youngest and furthest from the capital, have been filled for the case that has been more than a decade in the making. 

When asked why he believed he had been charged with the crime, he told the court: ‘Working as a journalist I encouraged my source to provide information that was said to be classified in order to publish that information. 

‘I believe that the First Amendment protected that activity.’

‘I believe the First Amendment and the espionage act are in contradiction with each other but I accept that it would difficult to win such a case given all the circumstances.’

Once he was read the charge of conspiring to obtain and disclose classified US documents, he said he pleaded guilty to the crime. He denied that anyone tried to bribe, intimidate or coerce him into his plea.

Assange said he pleaded ‘guilty to the information’ and said ‘yes’ when asked by Manglona if he meant he was admitting to the sole charge.

‘It is the finding of this court… that the plea of guilty is now accepted. The defendant is found guilty,’ Manglona declared.

After the judge asked him whether he was satisfied with the proceedings so far, Assange quipped that it would depend on the outcome. His lawyer quickly added: ‘No pressure, your honour.’

After a 20-minute recess, Manglona began deliberating on Assange’s sentence, which could include a one to five year probation, and a fine of US$15,000 to US$150,000.

‘It appears this case ends with me here in Saipan,’ she said.

Assange’s lawyers argued he could not afford such a fine, and the plea agreement with the US recommended not imposing a fine. 

Prosecutors told the judge that they were not seeking any forfeiture from Assange, who spent the last 12 years fighting for his freedom. 

The judge said Assange would be credited the entire 62 months he spent in the high security Belmarsh Prison in the UK after his arrest on April 11, 2019.

However, there was discussion about how the entire ’14 year ordeal’ Assange and his lawyers described would be applied to the sentence.

Assange has been a wanted man since 2010 when WikiLeaks released hundreds of thousands of classified US military documents on Washington’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq – the largest security breaches of their kind in US military history – along with swathes of diplomatic cables.

In 2012, as authorities circled him for that and over ‘credible and reliable’ sex crime allegations from a woman in Sweden, he fled into London’s Ecuadorian embassy where he remained for seven years in often farcical circumstances.

Ecuador eventually tired of him being there, revoked his asylum, and kicked him out – leading to his immediate arrest and imprisonment in the UK while he fought extradition to the US.

The US Government only counts the five years he spent in Belmarsh as being Assange’s time served, but his lawyer argued the whole 14 years counted.

‘We’ll stand on the record in this case. This is an unprecedented prosecution [and] I think the court is aware Mr Assange has already suffered significant consequences, including… his time in Belmarsh,’ his lawyer said.

‘We believe given the guidelines, the lack of criminal history, and the nature of the conduct, that no further incarceration is warranted and time served is appropriate.’

Manglona ultimately agreed, but warned she would not have been so lenient if the case was brought before Assange was imprisoned.

‘If this case was brought before me some time near 2012, without the benefit of what I know now, that you served a period of imprisonment… in apparently one of the harshest facilities in the UK,’ she said.

‘There’s another significant fact – the government has indicated there is no personal victim here. That tells me the dissemination of this information did not result in any known physical injury.

‘These two facts are very relevant. I would say if this was still unknown and closer to [2012] I would not be so inclined to accept this plea agreement before me.

‘But it’s the year 2024,’ she said, and noted the seven-year sentence for Chelsea Manning, who leaked the data to WikiLeaks, was relevant.

‘It appears your 62 months… was fair and reasonable and proportionate to Ms Manning’s actual prison time.’

Pollack said outside court after the hearing that WikiLeaks would continue and ‘Mr Assange, I have no doubt, will be a continuing force for freedom of speech and transparency in government’.

He said Assange would not be taking any questions, but gave a statement on his behalf.

‘The prosecution of Julian Assange is unprecedented in the 100 years of the espionage act, it has never been used by US to pursue a publisher, a journalist, like Mr Assange,’ he said.

‘Mr Assange revealed truthful, newsworthy information, including revealing that the United States had committed war crimes. 

‘He has suffered tremendously in his fight for free speech, for freedom of the press, and to ensure that the American public and the world community gets truthful and important newsworthy information.

‘We firmly believe that Mr Assange never should have been charged under the espionage act and engaged in [an] exercise that journalists engage in everyday and we are thankful that they do.

‘It is appropriate for the judge, as she did today, to determine that no additional incarceration of Mr Assange would be fair, appropriate, and it is time for him to be reunited with his family.

‘Mr Assange is grateful for all of the support that he has received and looks forward to reuniting with his wife and his children and getting back home to Australia.’

Pollack claimed the prosecution of Assange set a ‘chilling precedent’ and the court determined no harm was caused by him making the documents public.

‘We know that they were newsworthy, we know that they were quoted by every major news outlet on the planet and we know that they revealed important information. That is called journalism,’ he insisted.

‘That is what has a chilling effect… the US pursuing journalism as a crime. I hope this is the first and last time this ever occurs.’

Jennifer Robinson, another of Assange’s lawyers, also insisted her client was doing journalism when he dumped the documents online.

‘The US is seeking to exercise extraterrestrial jurisdiction over all of you without giving you constitutional free speech protections, and anyone who cares about free speech and democratic accountability should stand against it,’ she said.

‘I hope that the fact that we have been able to free Julian Assange today against all of the odds and against one of the most powerful governments in the world will give hope to all journalists and publishers who are imprisoned around the world.

‘We encourage everyone who stood to fight for Julian to continue the fight for him, and for all of those others in the hope that we can secure their future freedom too.’

 His flight, under the call sign VJT199, arrived on the island at 6.14am local time.

After falling out with the South American nation’s rulers he was dragged out of his bolthole in 2019 and locked up in Belmarsh while the US attempted to extradite him.

But that legal process ended abruptly yesterday, and WikiLeaks broke the news with a post on X reading: ‘Julian Assange is free!’

In a pre-recorded video filmed outside Belmarsh prison, Assange’s wife Stella and WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Kristinn Hrafnsson said: ‘If you’re seeing this, it means he is out.’

The move follows his dramatic release from Belmarsh Prison in London, days ahead of his 53rd birthday on July 3, where he has spent five years, largely in solitary confinement, fighting extradition.

Assange will pay half a million US dollars (£394,000) for a chartered flight from Stansted, accompanied by a WikiLeaks lawyer, a representative of the Australian government and a medic to check on his health.

WikiLeaks has launched a fundraising campaign to pay for the flight, which the Australian government reportedly fronted, according to the Telegraph. 

Hrafnsson told the Guardian of Assange’s flight out from Stansted Airport yesterday at 5pm: ‘He was brought into a transport vehicle and put in a tiny box there, where he basically sat for three hours.

‘There were up to 40 policemen guarding the outside. There was a helicopter hovering overhead, six police vehicles in a convoy to the airport, when they knew they were driving him basically out of the country in accordance to the agreement that has been drawn up.

‘It begs the question: why on earth? What on earth did they envision? That he will abscond on his way to freedom?’

Assange’s wife Stella said her relief at his release was coupled with anger that he had spent so long in prison.

She said she travelled to Australia with the couple’s two young sons Gabriel and Max on Sunday when it became clear that Assange would be freed.

Speaking from Australia, Mrs Assange told PA: ‘It is hard to believe that Julian has been in prison for so long. It had become normalised. I am grateful to the people who made this possible but I am also angry that it ever came to this.

‘Overall I am elated but I cannot believe it is actually happening until I see Julian.’

Mrs Assange said her husband’s release would not have happened without the intervention of Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who has been increasingly vocal in demands for the United States to drop charges against Assange.

‘The public climate has shifted and everyone understands that Julian has been the victim,’ she said.

‘Things are still very sensitive. Julian is paying for the flight so we will launch a fundraising campaign.’

She had a video call with her husband from Sydney, showing him pictures of the Opera House.

Mrs Assange revealed her husband left Belmarsh in the early hours of Monday and spent several hours at Stansted before his flight left.

In a High Court order, Dame Victoria Sharp and Mr Justice Johnson said Assange left the jurisdiction of England and Wales at 6.36pm on Monday, after the plea agreement was signed on June 19.

The judges added that it was ‘anticipated that a plea will be entered and accepted on Wednesday June 26 2024, after which the United States have undertaken to withdraw the extradition request’.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said a bail hearing for Assange was held in private on June 20.

Details of the hearing have been shrouded in secrecy, with the CPS refusing to provide further information and court listings staff having no knowledge of it, and unable to find any record of it taking place. 

But it has since established the hearing took place at 4pm at Westminster Magistrates’ Court before the chief magistrate, senior district judge Paul Goldspring, who took a judicial decision for this to take place behind closed doors under Criminal Procedure Rules and the Contempt of Court Act 1981. 

This means, at present, no further information on the contents of the hearing can be made public.

John Sheehan, head of extradition at the CPS, said: ‘This has been a highly complex matter involving advising and representing the Swedish and US authorities. In this period, the CPS’s extradition unit has faced and dealt with novel and challenging legal issues. Mr Assange has also utilised all the legal protections available to him.

‘This has culminated in facilitating the arrangements necessary to enable Mr Assange to leave the UK legally and safely.’

Simon Crowther, Amnesty International’s legal adviser, said: ‘We welcome the news that Julian Assange is to be released, as we believe he should never have been imprisoned like this in the first place.

‘The fight to protect freedom of expression continues, though. The years-long global spectacle of the prosecution of a publisher for revealing alleged war crimes, crimes against humanity and other human rights violations has undoubtedly done historic damage.’

In a statement posted on X, formerly Twitter, just after midnight on Tuesday, the official WikiLeaks account said Assange was released from Belmarsh Prison on Monday morning ‘after having spent 1,901 days there’.

The statement continued: ‘He … was released at Stansted airport during the afternoon, where he boarded a plane and departed the UK.

‘This is the result of a global campaign that spanned grass-roots organisers, press freedom campaigners, legislators and leaders from across the political spectrum, all the way to the United Nations.

‘This created the space for a long period of negotiations with the US Department of Justice, leading to a deal that has not yet been formally finalised.’

But while Assange’s allies claimed this was a victory for press freedom, sources told the Telegraph the Biden administration simply ‘threw in the towel’ as it did not believe a Labour government would extradite him. 

Geoffrey Robertson KC, the WikiLeaks founder’s former legal advisor who once mentored Sir Keir Starmer when he was a young barrister, told the newspaper that US prosecutors simply believed they ‘couldn’t rely on’ Labour to deliver on the extradition they’ve fought for for years. 

‘Even if America was successful, it would depend on the government of the day as to whether he was actually extradited.

‘I think they have thrown in the towel because they know, as everyone else knows, that we are going to have a Starmer government next week and they couldn’t rely on a Labour government to put him on a plane.

‘So they have reached this deal that allows him to get time served.’

Video posted to X by WikiLeaks showed Assange, seated and dressed casually in jeans and a shirt, discussing the text on a sheet of paper.

He is then shown walking up steps onto a Vista Jet aircraft.

Speaking about Assange’s release, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told the nation’s parliament on Tuesday ‘we want him brought home to Australia’.

He said: ‘I’ve been very clear as both the Labour leader and opposition, but also as Prime Minister, that – regardless of the views that people have about Mr Assange’s activities – 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.’

Mr Albanese added that Australian diplomatic forces ‘have engaged and advocated Australia’s interest using all appropriate channels to support a positive outcome’, which he took up early in his role after being elected Prime Minister in 2022.

He added: ‘I will have more to say when these legal proceedings have concluded, which I hope will be very soon, and I will report as appropriate at that time.’

The WikiLeaks statement also thanked ‘all who stood by us, fought for us, and remained utterly committed in the fight for his freedom’.

It said: ‘After more than five years in a 2×3 metre cell, isolated 23 hours a day, he will soon reunite with his wife Stella Assange, and their children, who have only known their father from behind bars.

‘WikiLeaks published ground-breaking stories of government corruption and human rights abuses, holding the powerful accountable for their actions. As editor-in-chief, Julian paid severely for these principles, and for the people’s right to know.

‘As he returns to Australia, we thank all who stood by us, fought for us, and remained utterly committed in the fight for his freedom. Julian’s freedom is our freedom.’

In a separate post on X, Mrs Assange said: ‘Julian is free!!!!

‘Words cannot express our immense gratitude to YOU – yes YOU, who have all mobilised for years and years to make this come true. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU.’

Assange’s father John Shipton said he felt ‘elated’ at hearing the news of his son’s dramatic journey from the UK and that his release had ‘lifted a huge burden’ from his family.

He said recent court hearings in the UK had given him hope that the ‘tide was turning’ in his son’s favour, as well as increasing pressure from the Australian government.

Speaking from Australia, he said he hoped his son will spend time ‘walking along beaches and listening to birds’ in the next few weeks and months.

‘Doing cartwheels is a good expression of the joy that one feels that Julian is [returning] home,’ he said.

Assange’s mother, Christine Assange, told Australia’s Sky News that she is ‘grateful’ her son’s ordeal is ‘finally coming to an end’.

She said: ‘This shows the importance and power of quiet diplomacy. Many have used my son’s situation to push their own agenda, so I am grateful to those unseen, hardworking people who put Julian’s welfare first.

‘The past 14 years have obviously taken a toll on me as a mother, so I wish to thank you in advance for respecting my privacy.’

Assange had been locked in a lengthy legal battle in the UK over his extradition, which saw him enter and live in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London in 2012 before his detention in Belmarsh Prison.

In a January 2021 ruling, then-district judge Vanessa Baraitser said Assange should not be sent to the US, citing a real and ‘oppressive’ risk of suicide, while ruling against him on all other issues.

Later that year, US authorities won a High Court bid to overturn this block, paving the way towards Assange’s extradition.

Assange was due to bring his own challenge to the High Court in London in early July after he was recently given the go-ahead to challenge the original judge’s dismissal of parts of his case.

More to follow.