WikiLeaks founder hours away from Saipan court hearing to decide his freedom

Before anyone outside his inner circle even knew it, the Australian journalist, so long a recluse or prisoner, had left London’s Belmarsh Prison and out of the country, bound for Saipan.

The 115-square-kilometer outcrop in the Mariana Islands, an American colony in the western Pacific Ocean, is still almost 3,000 kilometers from Australia, but closer than he has been to home in at least 12 years.

WikiLeaks shared video and photos of Assange’s journey as he made his way to London’s Stansted Airport, boarded the plane and arrived in Thailand.

Gabriel Shipton said the family were “absolutely overwhelmed” at the prospect of his brother finally coming home.

“We’ve been fighting for this — for Julian’s freedom, for many, many years,” he told 9News.

“You know, it’s absorbed throughout our lives. This is a very striking moment.

“Julian has a few … hurdles to jump before he is fit and healthy on Australian soil.

“So we’re crossing all our fingers and toes to do, to give it all this positive energy that it’s going to happen.”

After the flight, accompanied by Australia’s high commissioner to the UK, Stephen Smith, Assange will plead guilty to a felony charge under the US Espionage Act, ending a long-running legal saga that has spanned multiple.

In return, prosecutors will ask for just a 62-month sentence – the time Assange has been held at Belmarsh maximum security prison – allowing him to be released immediately after time served.

The hearing is scheduled for 9am and his relatives hope to see him back in Australia tonight.

British judicial officials confirmed Assange had left the UK on Monday night (early yesterday AEST) after being granted bail at a secret hearing last week.

Ms Assange told BBC Australia that it had been “touch and go” over the past 72 hours as to whether the deal would go through, but she felt “elated” by the news.

She said details of the settlement will be made public after the judge signs off on it.

“He’ll be a free man once it’s signed by a judge,” she said, adding that she still doesn’t think it’s real.

The lawyer, who married the jailed WikiLeaks founder in 2022 and gave birth to two of his children, said her husband was not allowed to fly commercial airlines to Saipan or Australia and that the plane would cost US$520,000 (783,300 USD) and launched an online fundraising campaign.

The WikiLeaks founder’s family and supporters have praised Australian authorities’ efforts to free him, marked publicly by a motion in parliament in February calling for the Australian citizen to be allowed to return home, saying “this thing can’t just go on and on endlessly’.

“Regardless of the views people have about Mr Assange’s activities, the case has dragged on for far too long,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told parliament yesterday.

“There is nothing to be gained by him continuing in prison and we want him returned home to Australia.”

The sentiment was echoed across the political spectrum in Australia, with government, coalition and crossbench MPs and senators welcoming the development.

Assange has been hailed by many around the world as a hero for exposing military abuses in Iraq and Afghanistan. Among the files released by WikiLeaks was video of a 2007 Apache helicopter attack by US forces in Baghdad that killed 11 people, including two Reuters journalists.

But his reputation was also tarnished by rape allegations, which he denied, and the Swedish authorities eventually gave up because so much time had passed.

A US Justice Department indictment unsealed in 2019 accused Assange of encouraging and aiding US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to steal diplomatic cables and military files published by WikiLeaks in 2010.

Prosecutors accused Assange of harming national security by releasing documents that harmed the US and its allies and aided its adversaries.

The case has been criticized by press advocates and Assange supporters. Federal prosecutors defended it as targeting conduct that went beyond that of a journalist gathering information, amounting to an attempt to solicit, steal and indiscriminately publish classified government documents.

Shipton said his brother was looking forward to “the simple pleasures Julian has been denied for the past 13 years”: visiting favorite places in Melbourne, listening to birds in the bush, swimming in the ocean.

Assange’s mother, Christine, said she was grateful “his ordeal is finally coming to an end”.

“It shows the importance and power of quiet diplomacy,” she said.

“Many have used my son’s situation to further their own agendas, so I am grateful to these invisible, hard-working people who put Julian’s well-being first.

”The last 14 years have obviously taken a toll on me as a mother, so I want to thank you in advance for respecting my privacy.”

Assange took refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London in 2012 and was granted political asylum after courts in England ruled he should be extradited to Sweden as part of a rape investigation in the Scandinavian country.

He was arrested by British police after the Ecuadorian government withdrew his asylum status in 2019 and was then jailed for skipping bail when he first took refuge in the embassy.

– Reported by Daniel Jeffrey and The Associated Press.