SAIPAN— WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assangearrived at a federal court in Saipan ahead of his expected guilty plea under an agreement with the US Department of Justice that will free him to return to Australia.
The plane carrying the computer expert and internet editor landed more than two hours before the scheduled start of the hearing in which he will plead guilty to a felony charge of publishing U.S. military secrets, as part of an agreement that exempts him from spend more time in prison in the United States after years imprisoned in the United Kingdom while fighting extradition to the United States.
The agreement with the US justice system frees him from any additional prison sentence.
It should be noted that the founder of WikiLeaks spent years sheltering in the Ecuadorian embassy in London after Swedish authorities requested his arrest over rape accusations before being detained in the United Kingdom.
“Possible closure”
The hearing, which is being held in the Northern Mariana Islands, a US territory located in the Pacific, is the surprising culmination of the US government’s years-long persecution of the publisher for having exposed hundreds of thousands of confidential military documents.
The US Justice Department agreed to hold the hearing on the remote island because Assange opposed going to the mainland US and because it is close to Australia, where he will return after pleading guilty.
Source: With information from AP/Europa Press
