LONDON — A airplane believed to be carrying Julian Assange landed on Tuesday in Bangkok, Thailand.
The WikiLeaks founder was photographed boarding a non-public airplane in the UK after he reached a cope with prosecutors in the USA to plead responsible to a single felony rely.
Assange had been accused by the USA of conspiring with Chelsea Manning, who, as an intelligence analyst within the U.S. Military, leaked to Assange lots of of hundreds of categorized paperwork, together with about 250,000 U.S. Division of State cables. WikiLeaks started publishing these paperwork in 2010.
“Julian Assange is free,” WikiLeaks mentioned in a press release posted to social media early on Tuesday.
Assange early on Monday walked out of London’s Belmarsh Excessive Safety Jail after greater than 5 years on the facility, WikiLeaks mentioned. He’d spent 1901 days there, the group mentioned.
“He was granted bail by the Excessive Courtroom in London and was launched at Stansted airport in the course of the afternoon, the place he boarded a airplane and departed the UK,” WikiLeaks mentioned.
Assange is predicted to cease in Thailand earlier than touring to a the Northern Mariana Islands, the place he is anticipated to plead responsible in a U.S. federal courtroom. He is then anticipated to proceed on to his native Australia.
“After greater than 5 years in a 2×3 metre cell, remoted 23 hours a day, he’ll quickly reunite along with his spouse Stella Assange, and their kids, who’ve solely identified their father from behind bars,” WikiLeaks mentioned.
Stella Assange, a longtime associate who married Assange in 2022, launched a press release praising the “unbelievable motion” that had sprung as much as protest Assange’s detention and the U.S. costs in opposition to him.
“A motion of individuals from all walks of life, from all over the world who help not simply Julian, and never simply us and our household, however what Julian stands for: Reality and justice,” Stella Assange mentioned. “We nonetheless want your assist. What begins now with Julian’s freedom is a brand new chapter.”