WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has reached a plea deal with the U.S. Justice Department that will see him avoid prison time in the United States.
Assange, who has been fighting extradition to the U.S. for years, is expected to plead guilty to a single charge of conspiring to obtain and disclose classified national defense documents. In exchange, the remaining charges against him will be dropped, including those under the Espionage Act.
Under the terms of the deal, Assange will be sentenced to time served, meaning he will be released immediately. He was recently released from Belmarsh prison in the U.K. and is currently en route to Australia, his home country.
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The plea deal marks the end of a long-running legal saga that spanned multiple continents and sparked international debate over press freedom and government transparency. Assange’s supporters have hailed the deal as a victory, while critics argue that it sets a dangerous precedent for those who leak classified information.
The case against Assange stemmed from WikiLeaks’ publication of hundreds of thousands of classified U.S. military and diplomatic documents in 2010. The leaks exposed alleged war crimes and human rights abuses, sparking widespread outrage and calls for accountability.
Assange has been in legal limbo since 2012, when he sought refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden on sexual assault charges. Those charges were eventually dropped, but Assange remained in the embassy until 2019, when he was arrested by British authorities for breaching bail conditions.
Since then, Assange has been fighting extradition to the U.S., where he faced charges of violating the Espionage Act and conspiring to hack government computers. The charges carried a potential sentence of up to 175 years in prison.
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The plea deal avoids a lengthy and complex trial that could have dragged on for years. It also spares Assange from the possibility of spending the rest of his life behind bars.
The case has drawn significant attention from human rights groups and press freedom advocates, who have raised concerns about the potential chilling effect on journalism if Assange were to be prosecuted for publishing leaked information.
The U.S. Justice Department has defended its pursuit of Assange, arguing that he endangered national security by publishing classified documents that put lives at risk.
The plea deal brings an end to one of the most high-profile legal battles of the 21st century. It remains to be seen what impact the case will have on the future of journalism and government transparency.
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