WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange walks out of U.S. court a 'free man' after guilty plea
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was freed by a court on the U.S. Pacific island territory of Saipan on Wednesday after pleading guilty to violating U.S. espionage law, in a deal that will see him return home to Australia.
During the three hour hearing, Assange pled guilty to one criminal count of conspiring to obtain and disclose classified U.S. national defence documents but said he had believed the Constitution's First Amendment, which protects free speech, shielded his activities.
«Working as a journalist I encouraged my source to provide information that was said to be classified in order to publish that information,» he told the court.
«I believed the First Amendment protected that activity but I accept that it was… a violation of the espionage statute.»
Chief U.S. District Judge Ramona V. Manglona accepted his guilty plea and released him due to time already served in a British jail.
Assange, 52, is set to leave Saipan shortly after noon local time (0200 GMT) on a private jet accompanied by Australia's ambassadors to the U.S. and UK, according to flight logs. They will then travel to Canberra, landing just before 7 p.m. (0900 GMT).
Assange had agreed to plead guilty to a single criminal count, according to filings in the U.S. District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands.
The U.S. territory in the western Pacific was chosen due to his opposition to travelling to the mainland U.S. and for its proximity to Australia, prosecutors said.
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