Wikileaks founder Julian Assange free after being released from prison
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has been released from prison in the UK as part of a plea deal with the US government.
The 52-year-old – who came to the international spotlight in 2010 after publishing a series of leaks from US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning – was today freed from the high security Belmarsh jail in London.
For years, the US has argued that the hundreds of thousands of classified military documents – which disclosed information about the Iraq and Afghanistan wars – endangered lives.
The activist was charged with conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defence information amid what has been the largest security breach of its kind in the US military history.
Footage of Assange published on X in the early hours of this morning shows his departure from Belmarsh where he had been locked away for the past five years.
He is headed towards Stansted Airport where he boarded a private charter plane.
It is understood that the Australian national has agreed to plead guilty to a single criminal charge of conspiring to obtain and disclose classified US national defence documents.
In return, Assange will walk free and return to his country after years in self-exile.
This expected to take place in a court in the Northern Mariana Islands tomorrow morning.
It is a moment his supporters have been waiting for after 14 years of legal battles, campaigns and diplomatic tensions for him and his family.
Wikileaks confirmed the reports in a statement on X: ‘Julian Assange is free. He left Belmarsh maximum security prison on the morning of June 24, after having spent 1901 days there.
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‘He was granted bail by the High Court in London and was released at Stansted airport during the afternoon, where he boarded a plane and departed the UK.
‘This is the result of a global campaign that spanned grass-roots organisers, press freedom campaigners, legislators and leaders from across the political spectrum, all the way to the United Nations.’
Who is Julian Assange and what is Wikileaks?
Assange is an Australian editor, publisher and activist who founded Wikileaks in 2006.
He became interested in computers and mathematics at a young age and by the early 90s he was considered one of his nation’s best hackers.
His website rose to prominence in April 2010 when it published a classified video showing a 2007 US helicopter attack that killed a dozen people in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.
Wikileaks then dumped more than 90,000 classified US military documents on the war in Afghanistan, and about 400,000 secret US files on the Iraq war.
It also leaked 250,000 secret diplomatic cables from US embassies that made it to the front pages of newspapers.
The group returned to the spotlight ahead of the 2016 US presidential election when it published tens of thousands of emails belonging to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairperson.
Arrest of Assange and legal battle
A Swedish court ordered Assange’s detention in November 2010 as a result of an investigation into allegations of sex crimes made by two female Swedish Wikileaks volunteers.
He was arrested by British police in December 2010 on a European Arrest Warrant (EAW) issued by Sweden.
The activist denied all allegations, claiming that it was a pretext to extradite him to the US to face charges over the leaks.
In June 2012, Assange sought political asylum in the Ecuadorean Embassy where he then spent seven years in hiding.
Swedish prosecutors dropped their investigation in 2017 but British police said he would still be arrested if he left the embassy over his failure to surrender to bail.
It was two years later that Ecuador revoked his asylum and he was carried out of the building before being thrown into jail.
Years of legal battles between US prosecutors and London’s High Court followed.
A timeline of Assange's lengthy legal battle
2010
August: An arrest warrant is issued for Assange over two separate allegations – one of rape and one of molestation.
November: Stockholm District Court approves a request to detain the Wikileaks founder. An international arrest warrant is issued.
December: Assange presents himself to London police and appears at an extradition hearing where he is remanded in custody. He is later granted conditional bail at the High Court.
2011
February: District Judge Howard Riddle rules that Assange should be extradited to Sweden.
November: Assange loses a High Court appeal against the decision.
2012
May: The UK Supreme Court upholds the High Court decision.
June 19: Assange enters the Ecuadorian embassy in London, requesting political asylum. A day later, Scotland Yard confirms he will be subject to arrest for breaching his bail conditions.
2013
June: Assange says he will not leave the embassy even if sex allegations against him are dropped.
2014
July: Assange loses a legal bid to have an arrest warrant issued in Sweden cancelled.
2015
August 13: Swedish prosecutors drop investigations into some of the sex allegations.
October 12: The Metropolitan Police end their 24-hour guard outside the Ecuadorian embassy.
2016
September 16: Sweden’s Court of Appeal rejects a bid by Assange to have his sex assault warrant dropped.
2017
January 17: Barack Obama’s decision to free Chelsea Manning prompts speculation over Assange’s position.
May 19: An investigation into a sex allegation against Assange is dropped by Sweden’s director of public prosecutions.
August 15: Assange is allegedly offered a deal to avoid extradition in exchange for revealing the source of hacked Democratic Party emails to end speculation over Russian involvement.
December: It is claimed that unnamed US figures who have been paying a security contractor to bug Assange in the Ecuadorian embassy have discussed a desperate plan to kidnap or poison him.
2018
August 9: The US Senate Committee asks to interview Assange as part of its investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
September 27: Assange steps down as editor of Wikileaks.
2019
January 23: Lawyers for Assange say they are taking action aimed at making Mr Trump’s administration reveal charges ‘secretly filed’ against him.
April 11: Assange is arrested after the Ecuadorian government withdraws his asylum. He is found guilty of breaching the Bail Act and remanded in custody at Belmarsh Prison.
May 1: Assange is sentenced to 50 weeks’ imprisonment by Southwark Crown Court. He continues to be held on remand in Belmarsh from September after serving the custodial sentence.
May 19: Swedish authorities resume their investigation into the alleged rape.
November 19: The alleged rape investigation is discontinued.
2020
January 13: Assange appears at Westminster Magistrates’ Court and is backed by dozens of supporters including rapper MIA.
February 24: Assange faces an extradition hearing at Woolwich Crown Court, where his representatives argue he cannot legally be handed to the US for ‘political offences’ because of a 2003 extradition treaty.
March 25: Assange appears via video link at Westminster Magistrates’ Court, where he is refused bail amid the coronavirus crisis.
June 24: The US Department of Justice issues an updated 18-count indictment over Assange’s alleged role in ‘one of the largest compromises of classified information in the history of the US’.
2021
January 4: A judge at the Old Bailey rules that Assange cannot be extradited to the US.
January 6: Assange is refused bail at Westminster Magistrates’ Court as the US government appeals against the decision to block his extradition.
August 11: The US government is allowed by the High Court to expand the basis of its appeal against the judge’s decision not to extradite Assange.
November 11: Sources tell the PA news agency that Assange has been given permission to marry his long-term partner in Belmarsh Prison.
December 10: The US government wins its High Court bid to overturn the judge’s decision not to extradite Assange.
December 14: Australia’s deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce speaks out to say Assange should not be extradited, but instead be kept in Britain and tried there or returned to his home nation.
December 23: Ms Moris says Assange’s lawyers have started the process towards a Supreme Court appeal over his extradition to the US.
2022
January 24: Assange wins the first stage of his Supreme Court appeal bid against a decision to allow his extradition to the US.
March 14: Assange is denied permission to appeal against the High Court’s decision in December 2021 to extradite him to the US, the Supreme Court confirms.
April 20: Westminster Magistrates’ Court formally issues an extradition order, meaning Home Secretary Priti Patel is now responsible for deciding whether to approve the extradition, with two months to make her decision.
June 17: Ms Patel signs the extradition order. Assange has the usual 14-day right to appeal.
June 20: Australia’s prime minister dismisses calls to publicly demand the US drops its prosecution of Assange after the Wikileaks co-founder’s wife expressed hopes the government in Canberra would intervene.
July 1: Assange lodges an appeal against a decision to extradite him to the US
2023
January 22: The campaign to free Assange steps up following support from the presidents of all major Latin American countries.
June 9: Assange loses latest extradition appeal bid.
July 29: US secretary of state Antony Blinken pushes back against Australian demands for an end to Assange’s prosecution.
2024
January 10: The lawyer for Assange says the WikiLeaks founder’s life ‘is at risk’ if his final appeal against his extradition to the US fails.
February 15: Assange’s wife warns that the Wikileaks founder ‘will die’ if he is extradited to the US, ahead of his High Court appeal.
February 20: The United States’ bid to prosecute Assange is ‘state retaliation’, the High Court hears, in his final bid for an appeal in the UK.
March 26: Two judges at the High Court decline to dismiss or grant Assange’s bid for an appeal.
April 17: The two judges confirm the US authorities have provided an assurance to the court, meaning a decision on Assange’s appeal bid will be considered at a hearing in May.
May 20: Assange is given the go-ahead to bring an appeal on the grounds he may be discriminated against and not able to rely on free speech protections in the US.
June 24: Assange is granted bail by the High Court in London and released from Belmarsh Prison.
This is a developing news story, more to follow soon… Check back shortly for further updates.
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