Julian Assange arrives in the Northern Mariana Islands to appear in court

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has arrived in the Northern Mariana Islands, a US territory in the Pacific Ocean, where he is due to appear in court to formalise an agreement with the US government that will allow him to return to his native Australia.

The plane on which Assange was traveling, charter flight VJT199 of the VistaJet company, arrived on Wednesday at 06:16 local time (20:16 GMT on Tuesday) in Saipan, the largest island and capital of the Northern Mariana Islands. , according to the Flightradar portal, specialized in tracking air routes.

The aircraft landed in Saipan after a six-hour journey from Bangkok, where He stayed for about eight hours and arrived there for a technical stop after Assange had been released from prison on Monday. from the maximum security prison where he was held in the United Kingdom.

“NOW: Julian Assange has arrived on US soil on the island of Saipan to formalize the plea agreement that should never have happened. #AssangeJet,” the WikiLeaks profile posted on X just after the plane landed.

WikiLeaks’

The founder of WikiLeaks is scheduled to appear in court at 09:00 local time on Wednesday (23:00 GMT on Tuesday) and plead guilty to one of the charges brought against him by the US for the largest leak of classified documents in the history of the country, which occurred in 2010.

The appearance will be in the Mariana Islands due to Assange’s opposition to travel to the continental United States and the court’s proximity to Australia, according to a letter the U.S. Department of Justice sent to the court.

During the court hearing, the agreement reached by Assange’s defense and the US Department of Justice will be formalized – with the judge’s approval – in which it is established that Assange will accept his guilt in exchange for a 62-month prison sentence, which he has already served in the Belmarsh high-security prison (United Kingdom).

The agreement establishes that he will be given credit for time served, so that Assange will be free after the court hearing and will be able to head to his native Australia, where his wife, Stella, and his two children are waiting for him.