WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has arrived in his home country Australia to be reunited with his wife and children as a free man.
The 52-year-old landed in the capital Canberra on Wednesday after an extraordinary few days following his release from Belmarsh prison in London.
Assange was seen passionately kissing his wife Stella after stepping off a plane at the city’s airport.
The Wikileaks founder earlier held up a fist in the air to applause and shouts of “welcome home” from his supporters.
They could also be heard shouting “Thank you Julian” and “We love you Julian”.
Assange later hugged his father John Shipton before entering a Royal Australian Air Force base.
As it happened: Assange welcomed back to Australia
His freedom comes after he pleaded guilty to one count of espionage as part of a deal with US authorities.
Assange entered the plea in a court in the US territory of Saipan in the Pacific earlier today.
Advertisement
He was sentenced to time served – the 62 months he has already spent in Belmarsh prison – according to court documents.
The US dropped 17 other espionage charges against him.
Image: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange kisses his wife Stella after arriving in Canberra. Pic: Reuters
Assange left the UK on Monday evening and flew to Saipan via Bangkok after the plea deal was signed on Wednesday 19 June.
The case began after American prosecutors alleged Assange put lives at risk when he helped former US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning steal diplomatic cables and military files Wikileaks put online in 2010.
In the following years, a lengthy legal battle took place in the UK over his extradition to the US, which included him entering the Ecuadorean Embassy in London in 2012 and staying there until his detention in Belmarsh prison began in 2019.
Assange was also accused of rape and sexual assault against two women in 2010.
However, the statute of limitations expired on one of those allegations in 2015, while he was living in the Ecuadorean embassy, and the Swedish prosecutor dropped the rape investigation in 2017.
Read more:Assange’s wife ‘can’t stop crying’ as he walks freeAssange flies out of UK on $500,000 private jetTimeline of Julian Assange’s 13-year battle for freedom
Image: Assange, left, speaks to his father John Shipton after arriving in Canberra. Pic: Reuters
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
4:06
Assange release a ‘relief’
Speaking outside court after the plea hearing in Saipan, Assange’s US lawyer Barry Pollack said his prosecution was “unprecedented” and the WikiLeaks founder “suffered tremendously in his fight for free speech”.
Mr Pollack said: “The prosecution of Julian Assange is unprecedented in the 100 years of the Espionage Act, it has never been used by the United States to pursue a publisher, a journalist, like Mr Assange.
“Mr Assange revealed truthful, important and newsworthy information, including revealing that the United States had committed war crimes, and he has suffered tremendously in his fight for free speech, for freedom of the press, and to ensure that the American public and the world community gets truthful and important, newsworthy information.”
He added that they “firmly believe that Mr Assange never should have been charged under the Espionage Act”.
Source : Sky News
