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June 26 (UPI) -- WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange arrived home in Australia on Wednesday a free man after earlier pleading guilty to breaking U.S. espionage law in a federal court in Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands. The 52-year-old stepped off a private flight in Canberra just before 8 p.m. local time to applause, cheers and chants of "welcome home" from a waiting crowd of well-wishers as he was met by his wife, Stella Assange, father, and Australian officials.
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"Touchdown! After enduring nearly 14 years of arbitrary detention in the U.K., five years of it in maximum security prison, for his groundbreaking publishing work with WikiLeaks, Julian Assange has arrived home on Australian soil," the media NGO wrote in a post on X.
Assange spoke on the phone with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese whose behind-the-scenes diplomacy is credited with persuading authorities in the United States and Britain to bring the case to a conclusion that satisfied all sides.
"Earlier tonight I was pleased to speak with Julian Assange to welcome him home to his family in Australia," Albanese told a news conference.
"As prime minister, I have been clear -- regardless of what you think of his activities, Mr. Assange's case had dragged on for too long. I have clearly and consistently -- at every opportunity and at every level -- advocated for Mr. Assange's case to be concluded.
"His arrival home ends a long-running legal process. I want to express my appreciation to the United States and the United Kingdom for their efforts in making this possible."
Australia's ABC News reported that Assange told Albanese that stepping onto Australian soil as a free man was a "surreal and happy moment" and that the prime minister had "saved his life."
Assange has yet to speak publicly but a defiant team Assange held a press conference in which his lawyers Barry Pollack and Jennifer Robinson, while welcoming the outcome, attacked what they said was the "unprecedented in a 100 years" use of the Espionage Act for the prosecution of a journalist or publisher that should never have been brought.
Thanking the Australian public for their support, Assange's South African-born wife told reporters her husband needed time to recuperate from all that he had been through and asked for privacy and space for the process to take place and to let their family be until he felt able to speak.
Stella Assange, who is also a lawyer, warned the prosecution set a dangerous precedent called on the global media to push against the criminalization of journalism but said she hoped her husband could one day receive a pardon.
"I hope journalists and editors and publishers everywhere realize the danger of the U.S. case against Julian that criminalizes, that has secured a conviction for, news gathering and publishing information that was true, that the public deserved to know," she told reporters.
"That precedent now can and will be used in the future against the rest of the press. So it is in the interest of all of the press to seek for this current state of affairs to change through reform of the Espionage Act. Through increased press protections, and yes, eventually when the time comes -- not today -- a pardon."
Assange's return to his native Australia brings to a close a 14-year legal fight over WikiLeaks' disclosure between 2009 and 2011 of more than 250,000 classified diplomatic cables and military files supplied by U.S. Army intelligence whistleblower Chelsea Manning that Washington said had compromised national security, put the lives of U.S. operatives at risk and caused major embarrassment.
He arrived from from the U.S. territory of Saipan where he admitted to a single count of conspiring with Chelsea Manning to unlawfully obtain and disseminate classified information relating to the national defense of the United States as part of a plea bargain his legal team negotiated with the U.S. Justice Department.
Under the deal, U.S. District Court chief judge Ramona V. Manglona imposed a prison sentence that precisely matched the time Assange had already spent in Belmarsh prison and then told him he was free to go.
He flew into Saipan from London after being released on bail from Belmarsh High Security Prison on Monday where he had been held since April 2019 and from where he waged a five-year battle in Britain's courts against extradition to the United States.
The United States had wanted him returned to face trial on 18 counts under the Espionage Act of 2017 which could have seen him receive a sentence of up to 175 years in a maximum security federal prison.
Prior to that, he was holed up in the Ecuadoran Embassy in London for seven years after being granted political asylum which was later withdrawn.
