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Julian Assange Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy in Deal That Sees Him Freed

The editor and hacktivist admitted to conspiracy as part of a plea deal that saw him immediately set free on time served.

Julian Assange is a free man. The WikiLeaks founder pleaded guilty to a single count of violating American espionage law in a U.S. federal court on Tuesday, part of a plea deal that saw him immediately released to return home to Australia. The agreement with U.S. federal prosecutors, announced on Monday after Assange had already been released and boarded a jet to depart the U.K., where he’d been incarcerated for the last five years, was finalized on Wednesday morning in a court on the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. territory. His guilty plea was accepted by a judge, who immediately released him on time served in the maximum-security prison Belmarsh. “You will be able to walk out of this courtroom a free man,” Chief U.S. District Judge Ramona Manglona told him. Assange smiled slightly in response, according to the Associated Press. “It’s a huge relief to Julian Assange, to his family, to his friends, to his supporters and to us—to everyone who believes in free speech around the world—that he can now return home to his Australia and be reunited with his family,” one of his lawyers told reporters after the hearing.