SYDNEY/WASHINGTON (Reuters) -WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is due to plead guilty on Wednesday to violating U.S. espionage law, in a deal that will set him free after a 14-year British legal odyssey and allow his return home to Australia. This Assange plea deal marks a significant development in his prolonged legal battles.
Assange, 52, agreed to plead guilty to conspiring to obtain and disclose classified U.S. defense documents. This agreement, according to filings, occurred in the U.S. District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands.
The deal ends a legal saga that kept Assange in a British high-security jail for over five years. He also spent seven years in the Ecuadorean embassy in London, fighting sex crime accusations and U.S. extradition.
The U.S. government saw him as a reckless villain who endangered agents’ lives with WikiLeaks’ mass release of secret documents. This release was one of the largest security breaches in U.S. military history.
But to free press advocates and his supporters, which includes world leaders, celebrities and some prominent journalists, he is a hero for exposing wrongdoing and alleged war crimes, and was persecuted for embarrassing U.S. authorities.
On Wednesday, Assange is due to be sentenced to 62 months of time already served at a hearing in Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands, at 9 a.m. local time (2300 GMT Tuesday).
Moreover, the Assange plea deal underscores the complexities surrounding whistleblowing and the dissemination of classified information. Assange’s case has polarized opinions worldwide, with some viewing him as a champion of free speech and others as a national security threat.
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