WikiLeaks founder released, returns to Australia

On June 26, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was released from court in Saipan Island (a US Pacific island) after pleading guilty to violating US espionage laws.

The court also allowed Mr. Assange to return directly to his native Australia. Mr. Assange left Saipan on a private plane to the Australian capital Canberra on the afternoon of June 26.

Julian Assange leaves court in Saipan on June 26. Photo: Getty Images/Sydney Herald Morning

According to Reuters, during a three-hour hearing in Saipan, Mr. Assange pleaded guilty to conspiring to obtain and disclose classified defense documents, but said he believed that the First Amendment of the US Constitution, which protects freedom of speech, shielded those activities.

U.S. District Court Judge Ramona V. Manglona accepted the guilty plea, noting that the U.S. government acknowledged there were no individual victims of Mr. Assange's actions.

Mr. Julian Assange and lawyer Jennifer Robinson on the plane returning to Australia. Photo: X

Julian Paul Assange, born July 3, 1971, is an Australian editor, publisher and political activist who founded WikiLeaks in 2006. WikiLeaks gained international attention after publishing a series of information provided by former military intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning in 2010 and 2011. Those allegations stemmed from WikiLeaks' publication of hundreds of thousands of classified US military documents about Washington's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq in 2010. This is considered one of the largest breaches of classified information in US history.

Assange’s release ends a 14-year legal saga that saw him spend more than five years in a high-security British prison and seven years in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, fighting extradition to Sweden on sexual assault charges and to the United States, where he faces 18 criminal charges.

KHANH MINH

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/nguoi-sang-lap-wikileaks-duoc-tra-tu-do-ve-australia-post746396.html