ange is free’: Wikileaks founder on his way home to Australia in US deal
DESCRIPTION: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has left the UK in the wake of news that he had struck a deal with US prosecutors and is expected to return to Australia and face no new prison time.
DESCRIPTION: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has left the UK in the wake of news that he had struck a deal with US prosecutors and is expected to return to Australia and face no new prison time.
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00:00This period of our lives, I'm confident now, has come to an end and I think that by this
00:08time next week, Julian will be free.
00:11WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange could return to Australia within days after leaving Belmarsh
00:16prison and boarding a private jet out of the United Kingdom.
00:20Assange, 52, has been fighting extradition to the US, where he was facing espionage charges
00:26for obtaining and publishing classified information.
00:30Assange has instead agreed to plead guilty to a single criminal count of conspiring to
00:35obtain and disclose classified US national defence documents.
00:40Assange is due to be sentenced at a hearing at 9am on Wednesday 26th June 2024 and will
00:46likely be credited for time already served and face no new jail time.
00:51This would have never, never materialised.
00:55This important day of joy, the day of Julian's freedom.
01:00So thank you so much.
01:02Australia has long called for the US to end its pursuit of Assange, with Prime Minister
01:06Anthony Albanese directly raising the issue with President Joe Biden.
01:12Julian Assange was first arrested in the UK in 2010 on a separate matter and took refuge
01:17in Ecuador's embassy in London.
01:19He was sent to Belmarsh prison in 2019.