NEW DELHI: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, admitted to one misdemeanor count related to the release of classified US military information. The Justice Department’s attorneys reached a plea deal that secures his release and puts an end to a protracted legal battle that sparked contentious debates about media freedom and issues for national protection.
Julian after joked to the judge during the reading that whether he is happy “depends on the results of the hear,” and then claimed that” Guilty to the Info.”
Assange, dressed in a black suit and ochre- colored tie with his hair slicked back, was present at the hearing in the Northern Mariana Islands, a Pacific US territory.
The deal, which was made public on Monday night in court documents, marks the conclusion of Assange’s more than ten-year legal battle, whose well-known secret-sharing website led to his astray among press freedom advocates who argued he acted as a journalist to expose US military misconduct. However, US prosecutors have argued that his actions recklessly endangered the country’s national security.
Although the plea with the prosecution forces Assange to admit to a single felony count, it also prevents him from ever serving time in an American prison. He will be given credit for the five years he has been incarcerated in a high-security British prison while battling extradition to the US to face charges. Assange spent years hid out in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London before being imprisoned in London to avoid being extradited to Sweden to face rape and sexual assault allegations, which he has denied.
According to WikiLeaks, Assange will travel to Canberra within hours.
Assange, is set to fly to Canberra, Australia, in the coming hours, according to a statement released by WikiLeaks on Wednesday.
According to the social media post by WikiLeaks, Assange is” Expected to depart in 2 hours, 58 minutes. To Canberra, Australia”. The plea deal is anticipated to facilitate his release and subsequent travel to the Australian capital.
What did WikiLeaks publish that sparked controversy?
A US helicopter attack in Baghdad from 2007 that left two journalists, including two Reuters journalists, dead was depicted in a video released by WikiLeaks in April 2010. The release of the classified video led to the arrest of Bradley Manning, a US military specialist, in June.
Subsequently, in July, WikiLeaks disclosed over 91, 000 documents, primarily consisting of confidential US military reports pertaining to the war in Afghanistan. Following this, 400, 000 classified US military files that detailed the Iraq war from 2004 to 2009 were released in October.
The most extensive leaks of their kind in the US military’s history were made through these disclosures. Later that year, WikiLeaks released thousands of US diplomatic cables that contained honest evaluations of international leaders and accurate assessments of security threats. Among these cables were messages from Abdullah, the former king of Saudi Arabia, that “repeatedly urged the United States to attack Iran’s nuclear program” and other articles about how China was planning cyberattacks against the United States.
