Key details about WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and his legal battles

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has reportedly pleaded guilty to espionage after striking a deal with the US Justice Department for his release from prison

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange plans to plead guilty to a felony charge as part of an agreement with the US Justice Department to secure his release from UK prison and bring a protracted legal saga to a close that spanned several continents, focusing on the release of classified documents, several media outlets reported.

Assange is set to appear in federal court in the Mariana Islands, a US commonwealth in the Western Pacific, to plead guilty to an Espionage Act charge related to conspiring to ‘unlawfully obtain and disseminate classified national defence information.’ The Justice Department disclosed this in a letter submitted to the court, reported Associated Press.

 

Following his plea and sentencing, scheduled for Wednesday morning, local time in Saipan, Assange is expected to return to Australia. The court proceedings are taking place in the Mariana Islands due to Assange’s reluctance to travel to the continental US and the location's proximity to Australia.

Julian Assange and his WikiLeaks connection

Born in 1971 in Townsville, Queensland, Assange developed an early interest in computers and was considered one of Australia’s leading hackers by the early 1990s. He founded WikiLeaks in 2006, an organisation dedicated to publishing leaked material. Assange gained international attention in 2010 after releasing a series of leaks by Chelsea Manning, a former US army soldier, including a video showing a 2007 Apache helicopter attack in Baghdad that killed 11 people, including two Reuters journalists.

The US government launched a criminal investigation, leading to Manning’s conviction and imprisonment, although her sentence was later commuted. In November 2010, WikiLeaks released over 250,000 US diplomatic cables, some of which were published by The Guardian.

In 2016, WikiLeaks released emails from Democratic party operatives ahead of the US presidential election, which US prosecutors claimed were stolen by Russian intelligence to interfere in the election in favour of Donald Trump. Assange’s reputation as a hero who exposed US military misconduct in Iraq and Afghanistan has been marred by rape allegations, which he denies.

Why was Assange imprisoned?

In 2010, Assange faced an arrest warrant for two sexual assault allegations in Sweden. Following a UK court ruling allowing his extradition to Sweden, he sought refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he was granted political asylum, fearing further extradition to the US. Assange remained in the embassy for nearly seven years, during which his relationship with the Ecuadorian government deteriorated. In 2019, Ecuador revoked his asylum, and UK police arrested him.

The US government issued new indictments in 2019 and 2020, charging Assange with violating the Espionage Act and alleging he conspired with hackers. He has been detained in HM Prison Belmarsh in London since April 2019 while fighting the US extradition request in British courts. If convicted, Assange faced up to 175 years in prison.

Assange’s road to freedom

For the last five years, Assange has been held in a high-security London prison, denied bail due to being considered a flight risk. During this time, his family and supporters have reported his declining physical and mental health. In 2021, a UK court permitted his extradition to the US, but he later won the right to appeal.

In February, the Australian parliament called on the US and UK governments to allow Assange to return to Australia. US President Joe Biden considered a request to drop the prosecution in April. While the reasons for his release remain unclear, Assange’s family credited ‘quiet diplomacy’, and his father thanked Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

What’s in the deal for Assange?

Assange is to appear in federal court in the Northern Mariana Islands, where he will plead guilty to a single Espionage Act charge of conspiring to unlawfully obtain and disseminate classified national defence information. The extradition request will be dropped, and no further charges will be pursued. 

The hearing is taking place in the Northern Mariana Islands due to Assange’s refusal to travel to the US mainland and the court’s proximity to Australia. Prosecutors have proposed a five-year sentence, with time served in the UK counted towards this, likely resulting in Assange's immediate release after sentencing. The guilty plea must be approved by a judge, after which Assange is expected to return to Australia.

John Shipton, Assange’s father, expressed optimism that Assange would soon be able to live an ordinary life with his family and wife, Stella.

Key timeline of Assange’s imprisonment

Here is a look at key events in the long-running legal saga:

In 2010, WikiLeaks initiated the release of nearly half a million documents related to the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Subsequently, Swedish prosecutors issued an arrest warrant for Julian Assange in August 2010, stemming from allegations of rape and molestation, though the warrant was withdrawn shortly afterwards due to insufficient evidence for the rape claim. Assange denied all allegations. 

The investigation was reopened in September 2010, leading to an international arrest warrant issued by Swedish police in November of that year. Assange surrendered to police in London in December 2010 and was detained pending an extradition hearing, during which the High Court granted him bail in the UK. 

In February 2011, a British district court ruled in favour of Assange’s extradition to Sweden. Unable to secure an appeal, Assange sought asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London in June 2012, where he was granted political asylum in August of the same year.

Despite efforts to cancel the arrest warrant in Sweden, Assange's appeal was unsuccessful in July 2014, and a judge in Stockholm upheld the warrant for alleged sexual offences against two women. Swedish prosecutors requested to question Assange at the Ecuadorian Embassy in March 2015 and dropped some investigations due to the statute of limitations in August 2015, though a rape allegation remained active.

In October 2015, the Metropolitan Police ended their 24-hour guard outside the embassy but reiterated their intent to arrest Assange should he leave. In February 2016, Assange celebrated a UN Working Group finding that his detention was unlawful, a decision dismissed by Britain. Talks of a legal resolution for Assange’s exit from the embassy began in September 2018, and legal battles continued until his asylum was revoked by Ecuador in April 2019.

Assange was arrested by London police for breaching bail conditions and on behalf of US authorities in April 2019, resulting in a 50-week prison sentence for bail jumping. In May 2019, the US government indicted Assange on 18 charges related to WikiLeaks’ release of classified documents, alleging conspiracy with Chelsea Manning. The rape investigation in Sweden was dropped again in November 2019.

Amid delays due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Assange’s extradition hearing resumed in June 2020 with additional indictments filed by the US. In January 2021, a British judge blocked his extradition, citing concerns over Assange’s well-being in US custody. Despite subsequent legal challenges and appeals, including permissions granted to the US to appeal the extradition decision in July 2021 and assurances from the US about humane treatment in December 2021, the extradition process continued.

The Supreme Court of Britain declined Assange’s appeal request in March 2022, and his extradition was ordered in June 2022, followed by appeals and further legal battles. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese advocated for Assange’s release in May 2023, and subsequent legal manoeuvres continued, culminating in a final legal bid launched by Assange's lawyers in February 2024 to halt his extradition.

On March 26, 2024, two High Court judges in London granted the US Justice Department three additional weeks to provide further assurances regarding Assange’s extradition. Finally, on June 24, 2024, the US Justice Department announced in a court filing that Assange would be released under a deal allowing him to plead guilty to an Espionage Act charge related to the unauthorised acquisition and dissemination of classified national defence information.

[With inputs from Associated Press]