Julian Assange arrives in Australia a “free man”

“It seems that this case ends with me here in Saipan,” said magistrate Ramona Villagomez Manglona. Assange had planned to hold a press conference at a hotel in the Australian capital on Wednesday, but did not attend. “He wanted to be here, but he needs time,” said his wife, Stella Assange.

“Publico.es”. Madrid. 06/20234. “It seems that this case ends with me here in Saipan,” declared Judge Ramona Villagomez Manglona in the early hours of Wednesday in reference to the judicial saga of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. After the sentence, in which she endorsed the freedom agreement announced this week, she left to return home to Australia, where she has already landed.

“With this ruling, it appears that he will be able to walk out of this courtroom a free man. I hope this serves to restore some peace,” the judge said. Assange will not spend any more time in jail after reaching a deal with the US Department of Justice. In exchange, he admitted guilt to a single crime: violating the country’s espionage law.

Charter flight VJT199 took off from the Mariana Islands (US), where the last sighting took place, at around 12:10 local time on Wednesday (4:10 Spanish time) and landed in Canberra at around 19:40 local time (11:40 in Spain).

Assange’s wife asks for time for the journalist

Assange was due to hold a press conference at a hotel in the Australian capital on Wednesday, but did not attend. “He wanted to be here, but he needs time,” said his wife, Stella Assange. She also thanked all the people who have supported the journalist. “Without their support, the political conditions would not have been in place to secure Julian’s release.”

“It took millions of people working behind the scenes, protesting in the streets for days, weeks, months, years… And we did it,” she said, excited and to applause.

Stella Assange has also asked for empathy for her husband, as well as space and privacy “so that we can be a family.” “You have to understand everything he has been through,” she stressed. In this regard, she indicated that “he needs to recover.”

The activist’s wife also denounced that “this case is an attack on journalism, on the right of citizens to know and it should not have happened. Julian should not have spent a single day in prison, but today is a day of celebration because he is free.”

“There are no restrictions whatsoever. The case against Julian Assange is over,” one of the members of the legal team continued. “He will be able to return to his life,” he added. They also acknowledged that the negotiations had been complicated and that “there were times when we were not close to reaching an agreement.”

Crime of espionage

The founder of Wikileaks has pleaded guilty to espionage charges based on conspiracy to obtain and disclose secret US documents. Among other atrocities, the platform published in 2010 a video of US soldiers shooting civilians in Iraq.

In addition to information on the Iraq war, Assange also revealed numerous scandals about Afghanistan. Assange’s leaks thus brought shame to the democratic states of the global north, to the embarrassment of the entire international community.

The journalist has spent more than five years in prison, since April 11, 2019. Assange has been held in extreme conditions, isolated for 23 hours a day in a cell measuring two by three meters. The espionage crime carries a maximum sentence of ten years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000, but the agreement frees the Australian with immediate effect.