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00:00I mean, what more can you tell us?
00:01What kind of reaction has there been to his release there?
00:04Well, it is definitely a surprise.
00:08We learned during the night that Julian Assange had actually left the U.K. on a jet to, well,
00:17not yet to Australia, but to Bangkok first, where he is, I understand, currently, his
00:22jet is on the tarmac, and he's about to fly, indeed, to those northern Mariana Islands.
00:31And we've been covering this from the very start.
00:33When he went for an interview to Scotland Yard over a decade ago, was suddenly spent
00:38a night in prison, was let out on bail, then, as you say, was in the Ecuadorian embassy
00:44for seven years on a self-imposed exile, then got basically shunted out by the Ecuadorians
00:51and into a British prison, where he'd been until yesterday afternoon.
00:55So we were expecting that appeal.
00:57We were going to be reporting it on the 9th and 10th of July.
01:00And it seems that a deal has been negotiated.
01:04We knew that when President Biden, of course, in an election year, said that he was considering
01:11dropping the case against Julian Assange, this appears to be the deal that has been
01:17done.
01:18He's sent to a high-security prison in London, to a jet.
01:23He's not out of the woods yet, because he needs to go before a federal judge in those
01:29Mariana Islands, in Saipan, and actually plead guilty to one charge.
01:35And then the deal, apparently, that's been struck is he will then be a free man to return
01:39to Australia.
01:40Benedict, as you said, this really took many people by surprise.
01:44It seemed to come out of nowhere.
01:46Do we have any idea how long this plea deal has been in the works?
01:50We don't have firm details.
01:52The reaction of Stella Assange this morning, both on Twitter and also on a longish interview
01:59on British radio, on the BBC, was to say she was elated.
02:04That's not surprising.
02:05She, as indeed her husband, they got married, by the way, while he was in prison.
02:10And they have two small children, two small boys, who, by the way, are in Australia with
02:15their mother, Stella, waiting for Julian Assange to return in the next 48 hours or so.
02:22It seems that she said it was touch and go.
02:24She can't quite believe that it is indeed happening.
02:28But she's just tweeted that Flight VJ199 will soon take off from Saipan.
02:35She says that Saipan is a remote U.S. overseas territory, that he will be entering the United
02:40States, and adds Julian won't be safe until he lands in Australia.
02:45Please keep tracking his flight.
02:47So, clearly, still an anxious Stella Assange, a lawyer herself who'd been defending her
02:53husband, trying to get him out of jail.
02:56And there he is, very close, it would appear, to freedom after over a decade going through
03:01the British legal system.
03:03And it has to be said that whether it's the original extradition case that we followed
03:07at Woolwich Crown Court, the Supreme Court, the High Court, he lost all of those.
03:12But he was absolutely banking on that appeal on the 9th and 10th of July.
03:16He's now in Bangkok, about to fly to U.S. territory in these islands.
03:22And then could he be returned in Australia in the next 48 hours?
03:26That is his family, his lawyers, his supporters' big freedom of fight for journalism.
03:32They were very worried that this could create a precedent for any country trying to reach
03:38out and have a journalist.
03:40He says he's a journalist, he's a publisher, when he was trying to fight for freedom.
03:46But of course, this is disputed by America, who said that he endangered many lives with
03:50the publication of those extra sensitive confidential U.S. cables.
03:54Benedict, thanks for that.
03:55It's also been many years.
03:56You've been covering this story for us as well.
03:58So thank you for that.
03:59And that is really an incredible development in that story of Julian Assange.