NEW DELHI: 52-year-old WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, arrived at a US court in Saipan on Wednesday for a plea bargain hearing, which is expected to be the final legal step before he becomes a free man. Assange, dressed in a black suit and ochre-colored tie with his hair slicked back, was present at the hearing in the Northern Mariana Islands, a Pacific US territory.
The US Justice Department agreed to hold the hearing on the remote island due to Assange’s opposition to coming to the continental US and its proximity to Australia, where he will return after entering his plea.The deal, disclosed Monday night in court papers, represents the conclusion of a more than decade-long legal journey for Assange, whose popular secret-sharing website made him a champion among press freedom advocates who believed he acted as a journalist to expose US military wrongdoing. However, US prosecutors have argued that his actions recklessly endangered the country’s national security.
Although the deal with prosecutors requires Assange to admit guilt to a single felony count, it also allows him to avoid serving any time in an American prison. He will receive credit for the five years he has already spent in a high-security British prison while fighting extradition to the US to face charges. Prior to his imprisonment in London, Assange spent years hiding out in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden to face allegations of rape and sexual assault, which he has denied.