The future of Wikileaks founder Assange will be decided on a remote island in the Pacific. If everything goes according to plan, the 52-year-old will soon be a free man.
After his release from British custody, the founder of the whistleblower platform Wikileaks, Julian Assange, has arrived for a court hearing in a US territory in the Western Pacific. The chartered plane with Assange on board landed on the island of Saipan early in the morning (local time), Wikileaks announced on the X platform.
The island belongs to the Northern Mariana Islands and is under US sovereignty. Assange was supposed to appear in court there to seal an agreement with the US justice system that would ultimately see him released.
The deal became known through the publication of US court documents. According to them, Assange is to plead guilty in court to conspiracy to unlawfully obtain and distribute secret documents and be sentenced to just over five years in prison.
This corresponds to the amount of time the Australian has already served in a maximum security prison in London. This means that he will be spared further imprisonment in the USA. The 52-year-old is expected to travel on to his native Australia afterward.
What Assange is accused of
The US accuses Assange of stealing and publishing secret material from military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan with whistleblower Chelsea Manning, thereby endangering the lives of US informants.
Assange was released from prison in London without being noticed by the public and left the UK on a chartered plane. After a stopover in the Thai capital Bangkok, he flew on to Saipan.
Source: Stern
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