WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who published U.S. government classified documents, is set to plead guilty and return home.
Assange is scheduled to appear in a U.S. court in Saipan on the 26th. He will be sentenced to 62 months there, which he already served in London. In exchange, he will be sent back to Australia.
In 2010, Assange caused controversy by leaking Chelsea Manning’s exposé of war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan and diplomatic classified documents on WikiLeaks.
The leaked information revealed war crimes committed by the U.S. in Iraq and Afghanistan, including an incident where a U.S. Apache helicopter killed 11 people, including two Reuters reporters, in Baghdad, Iraq.
This received overwhelming support from global activists advocating for press freedom, with some considering Assange, a hero. However, prosecutors judged Assange’s actions as a national security threat, as he indiscriminately exposed classified information.
Consequently, he was charged with 18 crimes and lived as a political refugee in the Ecuadorian embassy in London for over seven years from 2012. In 2010, he was also charged with sexual assault in Sweden. He was arrested in 2019 by British police upon receiving a request for extradition from the U.S. and was behind bars in Belmarsh Prison for five years. He has since been sued to prevent deportation to the U.S.
WikiLeaks responded, “Published groundbreaking stories of government corruption and human rights abuses, holding the powerful accountable for their actions. As editor-in-chief, Julian paid severely for these principles and the people’s right to know.”
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