Wikileaks Founder, Julian Assange Released From London Prison
The Founder of Wikileaks, Julian Assange has been released from a London prison after 14 years of legal battle.
He landed back home in his native Australia after a plea deal allowed him to walk free.
The plea deal saw Julian Assange plead guilty to one charge of conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defence information, rather than the 18 he was originally facing.
According to BBC, the case centred around a massive Wikileaks disclosure in 2010 when the website released a video from a US military helicopter which showed civilians being killed in the Iraqi capital Baghdad.
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It also published thousands of confidential documents suggesting that the US military had killed hundreds of civilians in unreported incidents during the war in Afghanistan.
The revelations became a huge story, prompting reaction from all corners of the globe, and led to intense scrutiny of American involvement in foreign conflicts.
Assange formally entered the charge on the remote Northern Mariana Islands, an American territory in the Pacific, two days after leaving Belmarsh prison.
In return, he was sentenced to time already served and released to fly home.
The Wikileaks founder when arrived at Canberra Airport, according to the BBC, kissed his wife and hugged his father, with his lawyers watching on, visibly moved.
Speaking shortly at a news conference, Stella Assange said, “Julian needs time to recover, to get used to freedom,”
The report said Assange has been in a legal battle with US officials for the past 14 years.
He was accused of leaking classified documents, which they say put lives in danger.
The 52-year-old did not attend the news conference in Canberra, instead letting his lawyer and wife speak for him.
“You have to understand what he’s been through,” Mrs Assange said, adding that they need time to “let our family be a family”.
The couple married in London’s Belmarsh prison in 2022, and have two children together.
His lawyer, Jen Robinson, told the media that the deal was “criminalisation of journalism” and set a “dangerous precedent
Mrs Assange while echoing the lawyer, said she hopes the media “realise the danger of this US case against Julian, that criminalises, that has secured his conviction for newsgathering and publishing information that was true, that the public deserved to know”.
Kazeem Badmus is a graduate of Mass Communication with years of experience. A professional in journalism and media writing, Kazeem prioritses accuracy and factual reportage of issues. He is also a dexterous finder of the truth with conscious delivery of unbiased and development oriented stories.
