Julian Assange reaches a plea deal with the United States Department of Justice: details of the agreement.
WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange has reached a plea deal with the United States Department of Justice (DoJ), agreeing to plead guilty to a single espionage charge in exchange for a sentence equivalent to the time already served. The plea deal still needs to be approved by a federal judge.
The decision follows a prolonged period of legal battles, hearings, and negotiations. Since 2019, Assange had been held in the high-security Belmarsh prison in the United Kingdom.
As confirmed by the WikiLeaks X account, following the plea deal, Assange departed the United Kingdom from Stansted Airport and will travel to Saipan, the capital of the Northern Mariana Islands, for the hearing on American soil. According to court documents, the agreement outlines that Assange will plead guilty to a single charge. In return, the U.S. Department of Justice will request a sentence of 62 months of imprisonment, a period that precisely matches the time Assange has already served in Belmarsh high-security prison. Following this, Assange will be able to return to Australia.
Upon reaching the agreement, his wife Stella Assange stated:
The charges against Assange included 18 counts, among which were the crimes of complicity in the breach of Pentagon files and violation of the Espionage Act. If extradition to the United States had been approved, Assange would have faced the prospect of 175 years of imprisonment.
