Julian Assange Reaches Plea Deal With US
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Julian Assange has reached a plea deal with the United States.
He will plead guilty to a felony charge of conspiring to disseminate classified information and will return to his home country of Australia.
Lawyers for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and the U.S. government have struck a deal to end his decade-plus legal odyssey and allow him to return to his home country of Australia this week after pleading guilty to a felony charge of conspiring to disseminate classified information.
The agreement means Assange faces a sentence of 62 months, the same amount he has already served.
Assange is preparing to plead guilty to a single count of conspiring to obtain and disclose information related to the national defense in a U.S. federal court in Saipan, in the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. commonwealth in the Pacific, this week, according to newly filed court papers.
Under the terms of the agreement, Assange faces a sentence of 62 months, equivalent to the time he has already served at Belmarsh Prison in the United Kingdom while fighting extradition to the United States. He is expected to be released and to return to his home country of Australia following the court proceeding later this week.
Australian leaders have been lobbying the Biden administration to drop the criminal case for years. President Biden confirmed at a news conference in April that American authorities had been “considering” such a move.
