JULIAN ASSANGE RELEASED FROM PRISON

Former WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has left Britain. This was announced by Wikileaks on X with a post “Julian Assange is free”.

He was detained in Britain for five years with fears of being extradited to the United States after he revealed top-secret military secrets about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In 2010, Assange published hundreds of thousands of secret United States documents as head of the whistleblowing website.

Some of the material released included video footage showing civilians being killed by fire from a US helicopter gunship in Iraq in 2007.

Two of the victims killed were Reuters journalists.

Before being detained in the high-security Belmarsh prison in London since April 2019, Assange stayed in Ecuador’s London embassy for seven years.

He made the embassy his home to avoid facing accusations of sexual assault that were eventually dropped.

Assange reached a landmark plea where he agreed to plead guilty to a single count of conspiracy to obtain and disseminate national defence information.

When the 52-year-old arrives in the United States on Wednesday morning local time, he will be sentenced to 62 months in prison with credit for the five years he had already served in prison in Britain.

If things go to plan, Assange would even be able to return to his native Australia.

Assange became an unofficial spokesperson for freedom of speech during his ordeal.

Image credit: Reuters