(NewsWorthy.news) – Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, is pleading guilty in a plea deal to one criminal charge relating to the obtaining and disclosure of highly confidential US national defense documents. Following Assange’s guilty plea, US prosecutors will push for a 62-month jail sentence, which will need to allow for the amount of time Assange has already spent in prison. The guilty plea will allow the activist to return home to Australia.
Assange’s plea deal comes 14 years after the widespread leak of top secret military and diplomatic documents. WikiLeaks was founded in the same year as Twitter in 2006. A resulting investigation by the US resulted in the source of the leaks Bradley Manning, who now uses the name Chelsea Manning, being convicted of numerous Espionage Act violations.
Assange was confined in Belmarsh Prison, London, for five years. The 51-year-old’s brother, Gabriel Shipton, warned in February that Assange was suffering immensely in jail and that his health was deteriorating. At the time, the activist was launching his last appeal against extradition to the US, and Shipton described how “heartbreaking” it was to see his brother in such poor health.
Assange has been vocally against state-surveillance, and has branded Facebook the worst “spy machine” ever conceived. Though the activist has finally won freedom after suffering for years in jail, commentators have highlighted how much the Espionage Act still looms over journalists as a threat to their freedom.
Despite having the opportunity to drop the Espionage Act charges against Assange that were brought by former President Donald Trump, President Joe Biden chose to proceed with the charges. Assange is expected to appear in the US federal court on June 26 in the US commonwealth territory of the Northern Mariana Islands. A judge needs to approve the expected guilty plea.
A controversial figure, Assange is still condemned by investigators who argue that his actions threatened national security. His defenders, however, praise his efforts and sacrifices in the name of press freedom and exposing government secrets. WikiLeaks released a statement following the development, stating that it had always stood against human rights abuses and government corruption. It thanked those who had stood by Assange and called for his release.
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