WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been released from prison in the United Kingdom and is expected to return to Australia after agreeing to plead guilty to a single charge of breaching U.S. espionage laws.
Assange, 52, will admit to one count of conspiracy to obtain and disclose classified U.S. national defense documents, according to a filing in the U.S. District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands. He was freed from the UK’s high-security Belmarsh prison on Monday and transported to the airport, from where he departed the country.
Assange is scheduled to appear at a court in Saipan, a U.S. Pacific territory, at 9 a.m. on Wednesday (23:00 GMT on Tuesday), where he will be sentenced to 62 months of time already served.
“Julian Assange is free,” WikiLeaks said in a statement on X. “He left Belmarsh maximum security prison on the morning of 24 June, after having spent 1901 days there. He was granted bail by the High Court in London and was released at Stansted airport during the afternoon, where he boarded a plane and departed the UK.”
A video posted on X by WikiLeaks showed Assange, dressed in a blue shirt and jeans, signing a document before boarding a private jet. Following the hearing in Saipan, he will return to Australia, according to the WikiLeaks statement.
The plane carrying Assange made a stop in Bangkok on Tuesday to refuel before continuing to the U.S. territory. His wife, Stella Assange, expressed her joy, saying she was “elated” and that it was “incredible” her husband was set to be freed.
“He will be a free man once it has been signed off by the judge and that will happen sometime tomorrow,” she said, speaking from Australia.
