WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange stops in Bangkok on his way to a US court and later freedom

BANGKOK — A plane believed to be carrying WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has landed in Bangkok on Tuesday, as he is on the way to enter a plea deal with the U.S. government that will free him and resolve the legal case that spanned years and continents over the publication of a trove of classified documents.

Assange is expected to return to his home country of Australia after his plea and sentencing. The hearing is taking place in Saipan, the largest island in the Northern Marianas, because of Assange’s opposition to traveling to the continental U.S. and the court’s proximity to Australia, prosecutors said.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who has been lobbying for the United States to end its prosecution of Assange, told Parliament that an Australian envoy had flown with Assange from London. “Regardless of the views that people have about Mr. Assange’s activities, the case has dragged on for too long. There’s nothing to be gained by his continued incarceration and we want him brought home to Australia,” Albanese added.

Assange has been heralded by many around the world as a hero who brought to light military wrongdoing in Iraq and Afghanistan. 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.The Justice Department’s indictment unsealed in 2019 accused Assange of encouraging and helping U.S.

The plea agreement comes months after President Joe Biden said he was considering a request from Australia to drop the U.S. push to prosecute Assange. The White House was not involved in the decision to resolve Assange’s case, according to a White House official who was not authorized to speak publicly about the case and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Justice Department officials mulled charges for Assange following the documents’ 2010 publication, but were unsure a case would hold up in court and were concerned it could be hard to justify prosecuting him for acts similar to those of a conventional journalist.

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