Julian Assange lands in Australia a free man after decades-long WikiLeaks battle
Julian Assange was given a hero's welcome in Canberra, ITV News Asia Correspondent Debi Edward reports
Julian Assange has arrived back in Australia after a decades-long battle against the US government over exposing the country's military secrets.
He was welcomed at Canberra Airport by his wife Stella, as well as a crowd of supporters, who cheered as he disembarked the jet.
Assange did not appear at the press conference arranged for after his arrival, but Stella and two of his lawyers made statements in his place.
"He wanted to be here but you have to understand what he's been through. He needs time, he needs to recuperate and this is a process," his wife told the press.
Julian Assange was met by loud applause and cheers at Canberra Airport
"I ask you please to give us space to give us privacy," she added. "I want Julian to have that space to rediscover freedom."
Stella said that her husband would speak publicly "at a time of his choosing".
In an earlier conversation with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Assange said it was "surreal" to have landed in his home country, adding that he was “looking forward to playing with his children”.
Assange also told Albanese that Australian government intervention in the US had saved his life.
One of Assange's lawyers, Jennifer Robinson, described the result as "a huge win for Australia and Australian democracy".
“This is the criminalisation of journalism,” Jennifer Robinson told the press conference.
His UK solicitor Gareth Peirce said the case had “exposed major fault lines” in human rights protections in both the US and UK.
More than 56,000 users were tracking the flight on online tracker FlightRadar24 as it landed in the capital Canberra at 7.37pm local time (10.37am UK).
Among those greeting him was his father John Shipton, who hugged his son before he gave one final wave and entered a nearby building.
It comes after the WikiLeaks founder pleaded guilty to obtaining and publishing US military secrets during a three-hour hearing in a court on the US Commonwealth island of Saipan.
The US Justice Department agreed to hold the hearing on the remote island, in the Pacific Ocean, far east of the Philippines, because Assange refused to travel to the US.
Saipan was also selected because it is near Assange's home in Australia.
The Free Julian Assange Campaign is crowdfunding to cover the cost of the flight, which it says cost $520,000 (£411,000), which he now owes to the Australian government.
The crowdfunding page had garnered more than £ 360,000 worth of donations online at the time of writing.
His wife Stella has said she “can’t stop crying” after Assange walked free from a US court in the early hours of Wednesday, UK time.
Alongside a photo of the WikiLeaks founder leaving the court in Saipan, she wrote on X: “Julian walks out of Saipan federal court a free man. I can’t stop crying.”
The court case marks the final chapter in Assange's battle with the US, which prosecuted him under the Espionage Act, over an alleged conspiracy to obtain and disclose confidential military records.
The two parties came to an abrupt agreement on Monday evening.
The White House was not involved in the decision to resolve Assange’s case, according to an official who spoke to The Associated Press.
Within the deal, Assange was to admit every single felony count put against him - but that meant he could walk free, rather than face time in a US prison, and then return home to Australia without supervision.
"You will be able to walk out of this courtroom a free man," Judge Manglona said to Assange before proceedings wrapped up in the court.
Assange's longest-serving lawyer said the case was a win for free speech.
The WikiLeaks founder had faced 18 counts from a 2019 indictment, which his supporters claimed carried a maximum sentence of up to 175 years in prison.
Assange was charged over the release of over 391,000 unredacted US military reports, which covered the war in Iraq and Afghanistan from 2004 to 2009, on his website WikiLeaks.
This included Assange's first headline-hitting video, which showed a US airstrike in Baghdad that killed 18 people, including civilians and two Reuters journalists, during the Iraq War, filmed from a helicopter cockpit.
Some of the war files were reportedly passed to him by US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning, on a CD she disguised as a collection of Lady Gaga songs.
The files, which were also published extensively by the Guardian, listed civilian deaths, torture of enemy fighters by the US, and evidence that American special forces hunted down Taliban leaders for "kill or capture" without trial.
He then leaked thousands of messages between US diplomats, including Hilary Clinton.
While many hailed his work as fighting for free speech, Assange was criticised for putting people's lives at risk, as the unredacted files revealed the names of local Afghans and Iraqis who passed information to US forces.
Opinion also began to turn against Assange, after two women from Sweden alleged he sexually assaulted them during a conference in the country.
After being granted political asylum, he spent seven years inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden to face the courts for the claims. There were fears he would then be extradited to the US if he left.
Assange had been in London's Belmarsh prison since he was removed from the Ecuadorian embassy by police in 2019 for breaching his bail conditions.
In March, the High Court in London ruled that Assange could not be extradited to the US on espionage charges unless American authorities guaranteed that he would not receive the death penalty.
Last month, Assange won his bid at the High Court which ruled Assange had the right to appeal his final challenge against extradition to the United States.
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