Julian Assange Heads to Australia After Release Order

Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, was released on Wednesday, June 26, after accepting one of the charges against him regarding violations of the anti-espionage law in a court in 'Saipan,' one of the U.S. territories in the Pacific. Following his release, Mr. Assange has traveled to Australia. In a three-hour court session, he admitted to one of his criminal charges, which involved conspiracy to obtain and disclose classified national defense documents of the United States. However, the WikiLeaks founder emphasized that the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution supports his actions. Julian Assange stated, 'As a journalist, I encouraged my source to provide me with information that is said to be classified for publication.' He added, 'I believed that these actions were within the framework of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, but I accept that this issue violated the anti-espionage law.' Ramona Manglona, the U.S. district judge, issued the order for his release after Julian Assange accepted his charge. According to an agreement between Mr. Assange and the court in 'Saipan,' he was sentenced to 62 months in prison for accepting this charge, which is the amount of time he has already spent in jail. Joe Biden, the President of the United States, announced in April of this year that he was considering Australia's request to drop the legal pursuit of Mr. Assange on espionage charges. Julian Assange, as the co-founder and then-manager of the WikiLeaks website, was pursued for espionage in the U.S. for disclosing thousands of classified U.S. government documents in 2010. He spent the last five years in the high-security Belmarsh prison in London and had previously taken refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London for several years.