Assange is back home and staying quiet—for now
SYDNEY—WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange landed in Australia as a free man for the first time in more than a decade, waved to supporters as he exited his airplane and then disappeared from public view. His immediate priorities: eating real food, playing with his children and going to swim in the ocean. But people close to Assange think he will eventually return to the public spotlight, fighting for press freedom, defining his legacy and promoting human rights.
“He doesn’t strike me as a shrinking violet," said Andrew Wilkie, an Australian lawmaker who advocated for Assange’s release from prison in London. “I don’t think he’s finished writing the Assange story yet." In a deal that allowed him to go free, Assange on Wednesday pleaded guilty to one felony count of violating the Espionage Act, in a U.S. courthouse on Saipan, a U.S.
territory in the western Pacific. He was sentenced to the 62 months he already served in a London prison while he fought extradition to the U.S., paving the way for his return to Australia. Assange’s family said the breakthrough happened when it became clear he would be able to raise First Amendment arguments at an appeal hearing in the U.K.
The U.S. also turned sympathetic to arguments made by Australia that Assange’s detention had gone on too long, and it was time for legal proceedings to end and him to come home. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he first raised the matter with President President Biden at a North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit in Madrid two years ago.
A delegation of Australian politicians flew to Washington last year to advocate for Assange’s release. “Quiet diplomacy was the way to go," said Arthur Sinodinos, who was Australia’s ambassador to the U.S. from
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