Assange home in Australia as a free man after 14 years

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange landed in Australia on Wednesday evening after his release by a court on the remote US Pacific territory of Saipan, ending a 14-year legal battle that took him to five years in a high-security British prison and seven years holed up in the Ecuadorean embassy in London.

Jennifer Robinson, the Australian attorney of Assange, said diplomacy and intense lobbying with the highest authorities in the US played a big role in Assange walking free. She first thanked Prime Minister Albanese for making the outcome possible.

Albanese – leader of a centre-left Labour party government—has claimed Assange’s release as a win for the country, which leveraged its security ties with Washington and London to strengthen its case to resolve the plight of an Australian citizen.

Assange had faced a maximum jail sentence of 175 years after being charged with 17 counts of breaching the US Espionage Act and a hacking-related charge. But under a deal revealed on Tuesday, he pled guilty to a single charge of espionage and walked free.

“I wish to thank the prime minister, Albanese, the officials who have been working ... on securing Julian’s release,” his wife Stella said. “I’d also like to thank the Australian people … because without their support, there would not be the political space to be able to achieve Julian’s freedom.”

A decade ago under a conservative government, there was little political will in Canberra to back Assange’s case. But things changed in 2023 when dozens of lawmakers across the political spectrum swung in behind the campaign to bring him home, his father, John Shipton, told Reuters.