Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, has left Britain after spending five years in prison, heading to the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. territory, where he will face trial. WikiLeaks noted that Assange spent 1,901 days in the British Belmarsh prison. The London High Court ordered his release on bail, after which Assange went to Stansted Airport in the outskirts of London and left the United Kingdom.
WikiLeaks confirmed the accuracy of U.S. court information regarding the deal with Assange, which includes a partial guilty plea. The U.S. federal court is scheduled to hold a session to try Assange on Saipan, one of the Northern Mariana Islands in the Pacific, on June 26, where his guilty plea is expected to be heard and a ruling issued within one day.
It is anticipated that Assange will be able to return to his home country, Australia, after being released under the agreement with U.S. authorities. It is noteworthy that U.S. authorities have charged Julian Assange with "conspiracy to obtain and publish classified national defense information" after his site, WikiLeaks, revealed sensitive information regarding U.S. operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. Assange has been in British prison since 2019, having been placed there after being expelled from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he had sought asylum since 2012. The United States had repeatedly requested the extradition of Julian Assange to face trial for the aforementioned charges.
