WikiLeaks founder agrees to plea deal over US classified documents

The founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, has agreed to plead guilty to a single charge of conspiring to acquire and disclose classified US national defence documents, as outlined in court documents filed in the US District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands.

Under the terms of a deal, Julian Assange has confessed in a US court, concluding a 14-year legal struggle, and has been granted freedom. He formally entered a plea to a single offence in the Northern Mariana Islands, an American territory in the Pacific, shortly after his release from a British prison. In exchange, he has been given credit for time served and is permitted to fly back to Australia to reunite with his family. 

US authorities had been pursuing the 52-year-old for a significant disclosure of confidential files in 2010. Prosecutors had initially sought to prosecute the Wikileaks founder on 18 counts, primarily under the Espionage Act, related to the release of confidential US military records and diplomatic messages concerning the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, which they claimed endangered lives. Wikileaks had unveiled a video from a US military helicopter showing civilians being killed in Baghdad, Iraq. It also released numerous confidential documents indicating that the US military had caused the deaths of hundreds of civilians in unreported incidents during the Afghanistan war. 

Wikileaks, established by Assange in 2006, has published over 10 million documents. One of Assange’s prominent collaborators, US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning, was sentenced to 35 years in prison before then-President Barack Obama commuted the sentence in 2017. 

During the hearing, Assange told the court, ‘As a journalist, I encouraged my source to provide information that was deemed classified to publish that information.’ Assange underscored his belief that he would be shielded by the First Amendment of the US Constitution, safeguarding freedom of the press. Prosecutors alleged that the WikiLeaks founder actively promoted leaks of classified information, asserting that Assange told leakers that ‘top secret means nothing.’ Following the sentencing, Assange’s attorney, Barry Pollack, affirmed that ‘Wikileaks’s work will persist, and Mr Assange, without a doubt, will remain a driving force for freedom of speech and government transparency.’