WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange returned to his homeland Australia aboard a charter jet on Wednesday, hours after pleading guilty to obtaining and publishing U.S. military secrets in a deal with Justice Department prosecutors that concludes a drawn-out legal saga.

The criminal case of international intrigue, which had played out for years, came to a surprise end in a most unusual setting with Assange, 52, entering his plea in a U.S. district court in Saipan, the capital of the Northern Mariana Islands. The American commonwealth in the Pacific is relatively close to Assange’s native Australia and accommodated his desire to avoid entering the continental United States.

Assange was accused of receiving and publishing hundreds of thousands of war logs and diplomatic cables that included details of U.S. military wrongdoing in Iraq and Afghanistan. His activities drew an outpouring of support from press freedom advocates, who heralded his role in bringing to light military conduct that might otherwise have been concealed from view and warned of a chilling effect on journalists. Among the files published by WikiLeaks was a video of a 2007 Apache helicopter attack by American forces in Baghdad that killed 11 people, including two Reuters journalists.

Assange raised his right fist as he emerged for the plane and his supporters at the Canberra airport cheered from a distance. Dressed in the same suit and tie he wore during his earlier court appearance, he embraced his wife Stella Assange and father John Shipton who were waiting on the tarmac.

  • maxinstuff@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Will be interesting to see how this plays out - really feels like it’s been in a holding pattern for 5+ years.

      • maxinstuff@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        As in, will the USA be still after him? What role will he play in the public sphere now that he is free?

        Etc.

        • fine_sandy_bottom@discuss.tchncs.de
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          4 months ago

          No and none.

          He just walked out of a US district court. If they were going to grab him they would have.

          He rolled the dice on being the world’s most well known “journalist” and he lost in the most spectacular way. He’s so incredibly lucky he got off as lightly as he did, having only lost 12 years of his life.

      • Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Do you think Assange is safe from assassination?

        Do you think Assange has been tamed and will now live a quiet life going walkabout in the outback?