Julian Assange has walked free after pleading guilty to leaking US national security secrets, ending a 14-year legal drama that has seen him spend time in UK jails and self-imposed exile in a London embassy.
Under a deal with federal prosecutors, the 52-year-old’s next move will be a flight back to his home country of Australia — specifically, its capital Canberra. Julian Assange arrives at the United States Courthouse in Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands on June 26. Image: Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images In one of the largest breaches of state secrets in US history, Assange was accused of assisting Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning in obtaining around 750 000 classified or sensitive documents. Manning was convicted of leaking classified material in 2013, but then-President Barack Obama commuted her 35-year prison sentence in 2017.Photograph: Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters pic.twitter.
The US criminally charged Assange in 2019 under the Trump administration with violating the Espionage Act and was seeking to extradite him from the UK, where he has been in prison ever since. The initial charges — 17 related to espionage and one to computer misuse — carried a maximum penalty of 175 years in prison if he was found guilty on all counts, although sentences for federal crimes are typically less than that.
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