WIKILEAKS’ ASSANGE ACCEPTED PLEA DEAL WITH US GOVERNMENT-He is due to be sentenced to 62 months already served
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been released from Belmarsh prison and flown out of the UK as he prepares to enter a guilty plea as part of a deal with the US Justice Department that could end his long-running legal saga.
Assange, 52, boarded a flight from Stansted airport at 5 pm UK time on Monday, ahead of an appearance later this week in the federal court in the Mariana Islands, a US commonwealth in the Western Pacific. He was charged with conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defense information by the US government.
According to a new filing from the DOJ, proceedings in the Mariana Islands are due to take place on Wednesday morning, where Assange will plead guilty to an Espionage Act charge of conspiring to obtain and disseminate classified national defense information unlawfully. He is due to be sentenced to 62 months already served at a hearing on the island of Saipan at 9 am local time.
The charges against Assange in the US stem from one of the largest publications of classified information in American history, which took place during the first term of Barack Obama’s presidency.
Assange was accused by the US government of conspiring with Chelsea Manning, a military intelligence analyst, to disclose tens of thousands of activity reports about the war in Afghanistan.
