"Plead guilty in exchange for freedom" to the United States? Assange will appear in court in Saipan tomorrow, after more than ten years of "holding up"

According to reports from the US media and the WikiLeaks website on June 24, Assange, the 52-year-old founder of the WikiLeaks website and an Australian citizen, was released from a British prison on the same day and boarded a flight to Australia.

Prior to this, Assange had reached a plea agreement with the US Department of Justice, which waived its request to extradite Assange to the United States for espionage and allowed him to return to his native Australia.

Some Australian public opinion said that a long-lasting farce is finally coming to an end.

"Assange is free." "WikiLeaks" posted consecutive posts on X on the 24th and 25th, saying that Assange was approved for bail by the London High Court, left the British prison that morning, and boarded a flight to Australia at London Stansted Airport at 5 pm.

Before that, Assange had spent 1,901 days in London's maximum-security Belmarsh Prison.

According to a court document released by the U.S. Department of Justice on the 24th, Assange has reached a preliminary plea agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice: Assange agrees to plead guilty to the felony charge of "conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defense information" by the U.S. Department of Justice; the U.S. Department of Justice will seek to sentence Assange to 62 months in prison. This sentence is equal to the time Assange served in a British prison. The U.S. Department of Justice will acknowledge that Assange has served his sentence and give up its previous request for his extradition.

According to legal procedures, Assange will appear in the federal court on Saipan, the capital of the Northern Mariana Islands, at 9 a.m. local time on June 26 to plead guilty to a felony. He will then plead guilty and accept sentencing. The plea agreement he reached with the U.S. Department of Justice must be approved by the judge of the court.

After completing the above legal procedures, Assange will return to Australia.

According to US prosecutors, Saipan was chosen to hold the trial, firstly because the island is close to Australia and secondly because Assange resolutely refused to set foot on the US mainland.

"We welcome Mr Assange's decision to plead guilty, which will end this protracted farce," said Australia's Shadow Foreign Minister Birmingham.

Some commentators said that with the reaching of the plea agreement, Assange's extradition battle with the United States that has lasted for several years is finally coming to an end, and his appearance in court on the 26th will be the "final step".

Assange, 52, founded the WikiLeaks website in 2006, aiming to use the Internet to help whistleblowers reveal confidential information. Since July 2010, WikiLeaks has exposed a large number of U.S. diplomatic cables and confidential U.S. military documents during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, exposing U.S. war crimes and severely damaging the image of U.S. diplomacy. Assange was immediately involved in a lawsuit.

In August 2010, Swedish prosecutors issued an arrest warrant for Assange on charges of rape and sexual assault, and Assange was first arrested in London, England. In order to avoid being extradited to Sweden and then more easily extradited to the United States, in June 2012, Assange hid in the Ecuadorian Embassy in the UK to seek asylum while on bail, and hid there for seven years.

In April 2019, the US authorities charged Assange with 17 counts of espionage and one count of improper use of computers. If convicted, he could be sentenced to up to 175 years in prison. In the same month, Assange's asylum status was revoked by Ecuador, and he was subsequently arrested by the British authorities on charges of "absconding on bail" and sentenced to 50 weeks in prison.

The United States immediately made an extradition request to the United Kingdom. Assange refused to be extradited, believing that he could not get a fair trial in the United States and that his mental condition could not withstand serving his sentence in the United States. Assange's supporters and activists also opposed the extradition.

In January 2021, a British judge rejected the US's application to extradite Assange on the grounds that Assange might face suicide risk if extradited. But in June 2022, the British government approved Assange's extradition to the United States. Assange subsequently appealed. Last month, two British judges approved Assange's right to appeal against extradition.

Now, after years of tug-of-war, Assange has finally waited for the day when he is exempted from extradition. Some public opinion pointed out that this major breakthrough is exciting, but not surprising.

On the one hand, this is the result of years of unremitting efforts by Australian politicians, activists, Assange supporters and his family.

According to people familiar with the matter, the Australian Federal Parliament House of Representatives passed a motion in February calling on the United States and the United Kingdom to end the Assange case and allow Assange to return home. Australian Prime Minister Albanese has made it clear that Assange's case has been delayed for too long and continued imprisonment will not benefit the United States in any way. He has raised the matter directly with US President Biden.

On the other hand, the United States, whose years-long extradition operation has so far failed, seems to have shown signs of loosening its stance in recent months.

U.S. President Biden hinted in April that the Assange case was making progress and that a deal could be reached, driven by Australian government officials. It is reported that U.S. Justice Department officials have recently been discussing how to hold Assange accountable without extraditing him to the United States.

Looking back over the past decade, as Assange's case has come and gone, his fate has attracted much attention. But there is one question that has no unified answer: What kind of person is he?

Supporters say he is a brave journalist who exposed U.S. government misconduct in an effort to increase government transparency in the public interest.

Critics say he is a flamboyant self-promoter, seeking fame and oblivious to the harm that leaks can cause.

Press freedom advocates and human rights groups believe that the criminal charges against Assange by U.S. authorities are a threat to free speech, set a "dangerous precedent" and violate the First Amendment of the Constitution.

But the US government believes that Assange revealed the names of US personnel and informants who provided valuable intelligence in dangerous locations such as war zones, endangering national security and the lives of others. "Engaging in reporting or journalism is not an excuse for criminal activity, nor is it a license to violate ordinary criminal law," US lawyer James Lewis once told the British court.

On the 24th, news came out that the US Department of Justice had reached an agreement with Assange, which once again caused controversy in the United States.

Former US Vice President Pence condemned the Biden administration for giving in to Assange. "A plea deal should never be reached with anyone who endangers the safety of US troops and national security," he wrote on social media.