WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will plead guilty this week to one of the charges brought against him by the United States under the Espionage Act. US prosecutors confirm this. Assange will plead guilty to conspiring to obtain and disseminate classified defense information, according to court papers.
The 52-year-old reached an agreement with US prosecutors.
Reuters reported that he would be sentenced to 62 months in prison. He does not have to serve that sentence, because he has already been in a British prison since 2019.
In 2010, WikiLeaks published hundreds of thousands of classified documents, including about US military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. Founder Assange has since filed lawsuits to avoid legal action in the United States. Before being transferred to a British prison in 2019, he hid in the Ecuadorian embassy in London for seven years.
Assange is scheduled to formally hear his sentence at a hearing on the Pacific island of Saipan on Wednesday at 9am (local time). The founder of WikiLeaks is an Australian citizen. He is expected to travel to his home country immediately after the hearing.
“The case took a long time”
The case against Assange has been going on for too long. An Australian government spokesman repeated these words from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Tuesday in response to news of the release of the Australian WikiLeaks founder.
“Prime Minister Albanese has always been clear: Mr Assange’s case has gone on for too long and there was nothing to be gained from his continued imprisonment,” the spokesman said, confirming that Australia was providing consular assistance to Assange.
