RT: Assange released from UK prison – WikiLeaks
RT: Assange released from UK prison – WikiLeaks
The Australian-born activist is expected to strike a plea deal with the US Department of Justice, court documents say
WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange has been released from a UK prison on Tuesday morning, his team has said. He has spent five years in the Belmarsh Prison in London while fighting extradition to the US, where he was indicted on 18 counts of disseminating classified information.
According to the newly filed court documents, Assange will strike a plea deal in order to avoid further jail time.
“Julian Assange is free. He left Belmarsh maximum security prison on the morning of 24 June, after having spent 1901 days there,” WikiLeaks wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “He was granted bail by the High Court in London and was released at Stansted airport during the afternoon, where he boarded a plane and departed the UK.”
WikiLeaks said that the international campaign to free Assange has “the space for a long period of negotiations with the US Department of Justice, leading to a deal that has not yet been formally finalized.”
“As he returns to Australia, we thank all who stood by us, fought for us, and remained utterly committed in the fight for his freedom,” WikiLeaks wrote.
According to a letter from the DOJ, Assange will appear in court in Sapian, in the Northern Mariana Islands, a US territory in the Pacific, at 9 am local time on Wednesday. “We anticipate that the defendant will plead guilty to the charge… of conspiring to unlawfully obtain and disseminate classified information relating to the national defense of the United States,” the letter said.
The DOJ said it expects Assange to return to his home country of Australia after the proceedings.
Originally published in RT 25th June 2024
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Good that the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave forced finally to release Assange. Lesson here for our gomen which is terrified of the freedom of speech.
As with the usual machination of a fascist state, the "plea deal" isn't all that great for Assange or journalists.
Perhaps our legal experts, both genuine and fake, should enlighten us how they see the matter while they are idling and waiting for that juicy case not coming their way, haven't heard much or anything from them.
As a hint, there has been nothing but holes in the legal case of the Assange affair, last of which was the unsurprising disappearance of material evidence held of the spying (and assassination?) contractors working for Uncle Sam. You could have sworn the goons can only be from Bolehland! Well, judging by the way censorship is being handled or manhandled by our little fascist Keystone Klowns Kontractors and the MacDani gomen of MacMullah Herr Anwar!
His plea is just a face saving device. US has a hegemonic face to lose. It lost once in the HwaWei case. Now it is so involved all over the world, it cannot back down from instigating violence and chaos. This is the danger of a hegemon who has run out of steam.