‘This case ends with me’: inside the Saipan court as Julian Assange’s legal saga comes to an end

With that, the WikiLeaks founder uttered the first words that the assembled journalists and supporters had heard from him, since the latest – and perhaps final –In a wood-panelled courthouse, at the foot of a lush hillside on the Saipan coast, Assange waited through three hours of a hearing that would see him, in a deal that would allow him to be reunited with his family in Australia.

Chief judge Ramona V Manglona opened the proceedings. She noted that the court room was unusually packed and asked Assange to confirm what he had done and why he was pleading guilty. Asked again if he was pleading guilty because he is “in fact guilty of that charge”, Assange took a long pause.As the unprecedented hearing continued, the judge noted that the timing of it was key to its outcome.

“With this pronouncement it appears you will be able to walk out of this courtroom a free man. I hope there will be some peace restored,” Manglona said.

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