US authorities withdraw extradition request for Julian Assange and reach agreement; result celebrated as a “historic victory” for press freedom

UPDATED with WikiLeaks footage showing Julian Assange leaving UKJulian Assange has negotiated a deal with US authorities that will save him from extradition to the US on espionage charges.

According to court documents, the Wikileaks founder will instead attend a hearing on June 26 at 9 a.m. local time in Saipan, in the U.S. Commonwealth territory of the Northern Mariana Islands in the Pacific.

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WikiLeaks on Monday released footage of Assange boarding a flight from Britain’s Stansted Airport at 5 p.m., after news of the deal broke around midnight (UK time).

A letter from the US Department of Justice states that Assange will be tried and convicted only of conspiracy to illegally obtain and disseminate classified information relating to the national defense of the United States under Section 793 of the Espionage Act.

In return for his guilty plea, Assange will be sentenced to 62 months in prison, the same amount of time he spent in the UK’s maximum security Belmarsh prison.

After the hearing, he will be sent back to his home country of Australia.

The agreement ends a 14-year extradition dispute with the US authorities, where Assange is wanted on charges related to the publication of over 500,000 secret government, military and diplomatic documents and other reports related to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan by WikiLeaks on the Internet in 2010.

The operation followed a British High Court ruling in May allowing Assange to challenge US assurances about how a trial in the US would be conducted and whether his right to freedom of expression would be violated.

US prosecutors had accused Assange of working with US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to break into a Pentagon computer and subsequently publish secret diplomatic cables and military files.

He has always denied the allegations. His supporters said the revelations were in the public interest.

Assange is charged under the US Espionage Act with 17 counts of espionage and one count of computer misuse. His lawyers fear that if convicted he could face up to 175 years in prison, while US authorities have said the sentence will be significantly shorter.

Journalists’ organizations around the world said prosecuting Assange under the US Espionage Act would be a severe blow to press freedom.

In one of the most sensational government whistleblower cases in recent times, Assange has been trying to avoid extradition to the United States since 2011.

His struggle began in August 2010 after Swedish prosecutors issued an arrest warrant for him following accusations of rape and sexual abuse, charges which were later dropped.

Shortly after the allegations became known, he left Sweden and went to Great Britain. A London court ruled in 2011 that he could be extradited to Sweden.

Assange continued to deny the allegations but said he did not want to travel to Sweden to testify because he feared it would facilitate his extradition to the United States.

To avoid extradition to Sweden, he jumped bail in June 2012 and sought refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

He remained at the embassy until April 2019, when Ecuador revoked his asylum status after he fell out of favor with Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno, who replaced the original protectorate president Rafael Vicente Correa in 2017.

British police promptly arrested Assange for breaching bail conditions in connection with the 2012 Swedish charges and on behalf of US authorities.

He has spent the last five years in Britain’s maximum security Belmarsh prison in southeast London, fighting extradition.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) described the result as a historic victory for press freedom and the right to information.

“RSF has fought for Julian Assange’s release throughout his detention. In fact, our team, and in particular campaign director Rebecca Vincent, were the only NGO representatives present at every single one of Assange’s hearings in the London courtroom and the only NGO to visit him in prison,” said Clayton Weimers, executive director of RSF USA.

“His release is a consolation for years of struggle. This is a victory for press freedom, but unless the Espionage Act is reformed to include a public interest defense, this ordeal could befall any publisher of leaked classified materials, including journalists and media outlets.”

David Greene, director of civil liberties at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, also welcomed Assange’s release and warned that it would set a “dangerous precedent.”

“The United States has now, for the first time in the more than 100-year history of the Espionage Act, achieved a conviction under the Espionage Act for basic journalistic acts: obtaining information from a source and being willing to obtain additional information of higher news value,” he said.

“This sets a dangerous precedent and everyone who cares about a free press should work to ensure this never happens again. While we are pleased that Assange will now be released to serve his sentence and can return to Australia, these charges should never have been brought.”

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