Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, was believed to be on a plane heading to Bangkok to enter a plea deal with the US government related to the publication of classified documents. The chartered flight he was on was scheduled to depart for Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands where he would appear in court the following morning. The plea deal involved Assange pleading guilty to an Espionage Act charge. After his plea and sentencing, Assange was expected to return to his home country of Australia.
Assange had spent five years in a British prison before boarding the plane from the United Kingdom where he had been held. The deal ensured that he would admit guilt but be spared from additional prison time. The case was being heard in Saipan due to Assange’s opposition to traveling to the continental US and the court’s proximity to Australia. Many press freedom advocates considered Assange a journalist who exposed US military wrongdoing, while investigators argued that his actions put national security at risk.
The US Justice Department had indicted Assange in 2019 for helping US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning steal diplomatic cables and military files that WikiLeaks later published. The plea agreement outlined that Assange conspired with Manning to obtain and communicate national defense information. Prosecutors defended their case, stating that Assange’s actions went beyond those of a journalist and threatened national security. The decision to drop the prosecution of Assange was not influenced by the White House, and President Joe Biden had considered a request from Australia to end the case.
Assange’s time in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London began in 2012, after courts in England ruled he should be extradited to Sweden as part of a rape investigation. Although Sweden eventually dropped its investigation, Assange remained in London’s high-security Belmarsh Prison due to the extradition battle with the US. Assange’s family and supporters have cited concerns about his declining physical and mental health due to his years of legal battles. The US government had sought Assange’s arrest, with former Attorney General Jeff Sessions making it a priority during the Trump administration.
Assange became widely known for publishing classified government documents that exposed military wrongdoing in Iraq and Afghanistan. His website, WikiLeaks, published a video of a 2007 Apache helicopter attack in Baghdad that killed 11 people, including two Reuters journalists. Despite this, Assange’s reputation was tarnished by rape allegations, which he consistently denied. His legal case has been a matter of international intrigue, with some viewing him as a hero who held the powerful accountable, while others saw his actions as damaging to US national security. Assange’s attorneys have not commented on the plea agreement.
