Julian Assange has touched down in Australia a free man, bringing to an end an extraordinary legal saga that spanned 14 years.
The WikiLeaks founder arrived in Canberra shortly after 7.30pm on Wednesday, accompanied by US Ambassador Kevin Rudd, UK High Commissioner Stephen Smith, and his legal team, where he was reunited with his father John Shipton and wife Stella, with whom he shared an embrace.
A throng of media and dozens of members of the public watched from about 100m away as the private jet carrying Assange touched down at the RAAF base.
As he disembarked, he waved at the crowd who had erupted into applause and cheers of “well done, son“, and “you made it, welcome home” .
Hours earlier, in the Saipan district court in the little-known US Pacific territory of the Northern Mariana Islands, the WikiLeaks founder pleaded guilty to one charge of conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defence information.
The charge carried a maximum sentence of 10 years behind bars, but Chief Judge Ramona Manglona took into account the five years 52-year-old Mr Assange spent in the United Kingdom’s Belmarsh prison and told him he was free.
“Given the factual basis that accounts for the whole saga of events that constitutes the basis for this very serious espionage charge against you, I am in fact sentencing you to a period of time served,” the judge said.
Assange — who has spent the last five years in the high-security prison after nearly seven years holed up at London’s Ecuadorian embassy — told the court he believed the country’s first amendment, which protects free speech, had 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,” Assange told the court.
“I believed the first amendment protected that activity but I accept that it was … a violation of the espionage statute.”
The hearing brings an end to the US government’s years-long pursuit of the publisher, who leaked troves of classified documents related to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, Guantanamo Bay, diplomatic cables and other highly classified information.
It sparked a lengthy pursuit by the US who sought to extradite him to face prosecution, which Assange repeatedly dodged.
In that time, Assange has divided public opinion over whether he is a hero of press freedom, or a criminal who endangered lives and exposed top secret US documents.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Wednesday said regardless of Australians’ views on Assange’s activities, “(this) case has dragged on for too long”.
“I have said repeatedly that there was nothing to be gained by his continued incarceration,” Mr Albanese said.
“Over the two years since we took office, the government has engaged and advocated, including at leader level, to resolve this. We have used all appropriate channels. This outcome has been the product of careful, patient and determined work, work I am very proud of.”
“This is what standing up for Australians around the world looks like. It means getting the job done, getting results and getting outcomes.
“Having the determination to stay the course, and I am very pleased there has been a successful outcome.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was not awaiting Assange’s arrival, but will hold a press conference after 8pm.
As to whether or not the pair should meet, the Coalition’s foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham said the PM should “rule that out”.
“While it is good that the legal saga of Julian Assange is finally over, Assange is no hero and should not be feted as a hard-done-by political prisoner,” Senator Birmingham exclusively told The Nightly.
He said that unlike Cheng Lei, Sean Turnell, and Kylie Moore-Gilbert, Assange was not a “political prisoner”.
“The Assange saga went on so long because, at every turn, he avoided facing justice in an open court,” Senator Birmingham said.
“Remember Assange skipping bail in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden on sexual assault charges by entering the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he dodged court for seven years? When Ecuador finally evicted him, Assange was imprisoned for breaching bail and, ultimately facing extradition to the US, he then spent five years pursuing appeal after appeal to once again avoid facing the charges against him.
“That was his right… Those very rights Assange had access to and exercised were not something available to Cheng Lei, Sean Turnell and Kylie Moore-Gilbert.
“He should ditch the victim card and ponder what might have happened if he had simply faced his day in court in Sweden and the US.”
Prior to the deal being struck, Assange faced 175 years in prison for 18 charges related to publishing hundreds of thousands of documents supplied by former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning, who herself was convicted of stealing and disseminating documents and videos to WikiLeaks and spent seven years in prison.
The US had accused Assange, who is now prohibited from travelling to the country without permission, of endangering the lives of confidential sources by releasing unfiltered cables.
US Ambassador to Australia Caroline Kennedy in a brief statement said Assange’s return to Australia “brings this longstanding and difficult case to a close”.
“The United States is grateful to the government of Australia for their commitment and assistance throughout this process,” she said.
Former United States Vice President Mike Pence, however, called the plea deal a “miscarriage of justice”.
“Julian Assange endangered the lives of our troops in a time of war and should have been prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” he wrote on X.
“The Biden administration’s plea deal with Assange is a miscarriage of justice and dishonours the service and sacrifice of the men and women of our Armed Forces and their families.
“There should be no plea deals to avoid prison for anyone that endangers the security of our military or the national security of the United States.”
Speaking outside the court earlier, Assange’s long-time counsel Jennifer Robinson said it was a “historic day”, that brought ”to an end a case which has been recognised as the greatest threat to the First Amendment in the 21st century”.
“Finally, after 14 years of legal battles, Julian Assange can go home a free man,” she said.
“Julian has suffered for more than 14 years because of the risk of extradition to the United States. He faced 175 years in prison for publishing evidence of war crimes, human rights abuses, and US wrongdoing around the world.”
Ms Robinson thanked Mr Albanese for doing “what he needed to do to ensure Julian’s freedom”, but warned of the dangerous precedent of the outcome.
“Today, (Assange) pleaded guilty to an offence for having published information in the public interest.
“This is a very dangerous precedent. This prosecution sets a dangerous precedent that should be considered by journalists everywhere.”
His lawyer Barry Pollack said the US’ pursuit of Assange had been “unprecedented’.
“In the 100 years of the Espionage Act, it has never been used by the United States to pursue a publisher, a journalist, like Assange,” Mr Pollack said.
“Assange revealed truthful, newsworthy information, including revealing that the United States had committed war crimes. He has suffered tremendously in his fight for free speech, for freedom of the press, and to ensure that the American public and the world get truthful and important newsworthy information.
“We firmly believe that Assange never should have been charged under the Espionage Act and engaged in an exercise that journalists engage in every day and we are thankful that they do.”
At home, Independent MP Andrew Wilkie, a long-time advocate of Assange and co-chair of the cross-parliamentary support group, said while it was crucial no one begrudge Assange for making the deal, there were potential ramifications.
“This is the sort of thing we’d expect in an authoritarian, totalitarian country. It is not what we would expect from the United States or a similar country like Australia,” he said.
“I think it sends a chill down the spines of journalists worldwide that this precedent has been set, and it means that there is more work to do to push for media freedom and protections for journalists so they can do their job.
“At the end of the day, Julian Assange is a Walkley award-winning Australian journalist who did his job.”