WikiLeaks founder Assange welcomed home in Australia a free man after US deal

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange kisses his wife Stella Assange as he arrives in Canberra, Australia, Jun 26, 2024. landed to an ecstatic welcome in Australia on Wednesday after pleading guilty to violating US espionage law in a deal that sets him free from a 14-year legal battle.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange embraces his wife Stella Assange as he arrives in Canberra, Australia, Jun 26, 2024. Those charges stemmed from WikiLeaks' release in 2010 of hundreds of thousands of classified US military documents on Washington's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq - one of the largest breaches of secret information in US history.

"I believed the First Amendment protected that activity but I accept that it was ... a violation of the espionage statute." "We firmly believe that Mr Assange never should have been charged under the Espionage Act and engaged in exercise that journalists engage in every day," his US lawyer, Barry Pollack, told reporters outside the court.Assange's British and Australian lawyer Jennifer Robinson thanked the Australian government for securing Assange's release. His father, John Shipton, told Reuters he was relieved.

Politicians in Australia who had campaigned for his release raised concern about the guilty plea on US soil, saying he was a journalist who had been convicted for doing his job.

Source: Law Daily Report (lawdailyreport.net)

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