Wikileaks Founder Julian Assange Cuts Deal, Set to Walk Free After Years-Long Legal Battle

In a surprising turn of events that concludes a years-long legal saga, Wikileaks has announced that its founder, Julian Assange, has departed the United Kingdom after reaching a plea deal with US authorities. This development marks a significant milestone in Assange's protracted battle against extradition to the United States, where he faced criminal charges related to the disclosure of classified information.

According to Wikileaks, the 52-year-old Australian national, charged with conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defense information, will plead guilty to criminal charges as part of the agreement. However, in a remarkable twist, Assange will not serve any additional time in US custody and will receive credit for the time he spent incarcerated in the UK.

For years, the United States has contended that the Wikileaks disclosures, which revealed sensitive information about the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, jeopardized lives. Assange, who spent the last five years in a British prison fighting extradition to the US, has consistently maintained his innocence and argued that the case against him was politically motivated.

CBS News, the BBC's US partner, reports that Assange will return to Australia, according to a letter from the US Department of Justice. On the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), Wikileaks stated that Assange left Belmarsh prison on Monday after spending 1,901 days in a small cell. He was subsequently "released at Stansted airport during the afternoon, where he boarded a plane and departed the UK" to return to his home country, the statement added.

Video footage shared online by Wikileaks appears to show Assange, dressed casually in jeans and a blue shirt, being driven to Stansted before boarding an aircraft. However, the BBC has not been able to independently verify the authenticity of the video.

Assange's wife, Stella Assange, took to Twitter to express her gratitude to his supporters "who have all mobilized for years and years to make this come true."

The deal, which will see Assange plead guilty to one charge, is expected to be finalized in a court in the Northern Mariana Islands on Wednesday, June 26. These remote Pacific islands, a US commonwealth, are much closer to Australia than US federal courts in Hawaii or the continental United States.

Agence France Press quoted a spokesperson for the Australian government as saying that the case had "dragged on for too long."

Assange's attorney, Richard Miller, declined to comment when contacted by CBS News. The BBC has also reached out to his US-based lawyer.

In April, US President Joe Biden indicated that he was considering a request from Australia to drop the prosecution against Assange. The following month, in a significant victory for Assange, the UK High Court ruled that he could bring a new appeal against extradition to the US, allowing him to challenge US assurances over how his prospective trial would be conducted and whether his right to free speech would be infringed.

After the ruling, Assange's wife, Stella, told reporters and supporters that the Biden administration "should distance itself from this shameful prosecution."

Wikileaks, which Assange founded in 2006, claims to have published over 10 million documents in what the US government later described as "one of the largest compromises of classified information in the history of the United States." The website made headlines in 2010 when it published a video from a US military helicopter showing more than a dozen Iraqi civilians, including two Reuters news reporters, being killed in Baghdad.

Even amid the long-running legal battles, Assange has rarely been seen in public, and reports have emerged about his deteriorating health, including a small stroke he suffered in prison in 2021.

As Julian Assange prepares to return to Australia, the resolution of this high-profile case marks the end of a remarkable chapter in the history of whistleblowing and raises profound questions about the balance between national security and the freedom of the press.