Source: Assange Lands in Australia After US Plea Deal for Releasing Military Secrets | Newsmax.com
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange landed to an ecstatic welcome in Australia on Wednesday after pleading guilty to violating U.S. espionage law in a deal that sets him free from a 14-year legal battle.
Assange disembarked from a private jet at Canberra airport just after 7:30 p.m. (0930 GMT), waving to waiting media and cheering supporters before passionately kissing his wife, Stella, and lifting her off the ground.
He embraced his father before entering the terminal building with his legal team.
Australia Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who has lobbied for years to free Assange, said he had spoken to him by phone after his plane landed.
“I had a very warm discussion with him this evening, he was very generous in his praise of the Australian government’s efforts,” Albanese told a news conference.
“The Australian government stands up for Australian citizens, that’s what we do.”
Assange’s arrival ends a saga in which he spent more than five years in a British high-security jail and seven years in asylum at the Ecuadorean embassy in London battling extradition to Sweden on sexual assault allegations and to the U.S., where he faced 18 criminal charges.
Those charges stemmed from WikiLeaks’ release in 2010 of hundreds of thousands of classified U.S. military documents on Washington’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq – one of the largest breaches of secret information in U.S. history.
During a three-hour hearing held earlier in the U.S. territory of Saipan, Assange pleaded guilty to one criminal count of conspiring to obtain and disclose classified national defense documents but said he had believed the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment, which protects free speech, shielded his activities.
Chief U.S. District Judge Ramona V. Manglona accepted his guilty plea, noting the U.S. government indicated there was no personal victim from Assange’s actions.
She wished Assange, who turns 53 on July 3, an early happy birthday as she released him due to time already served in a British jail.
周三，维基解密创始人朱利安·阿桑奇 (Julian Assange) 在承认违反美国间谍法的罪名后，在澳大利亚受到热烈欢迎，协议使他摆脱了长达 14 年的法律斗争。 晚上 7 点 30 分刚过，阿桑奇在堪培拉机场从私人飞机上下来。 （格林尼治标准时间 0930），他向等待的媒体和欢呼的支持者挥手致意，然后热情地亲吻他的妻子斯特拉，并将她从地上抱起来。 在与法律团队一起进入航站楼之前，他拥抱了父亲。 多年来一直游说释放阿桑奇的澳大利亚总理安东尼·阿尔巴内塞表示，他在飞机降落后曾与他通电话。 阿尔巴尼斯在新闻发布会上说：“今晚我与他进行了非常热烈的讨论，他非常慷慨地赞扬了澳大利亚政府的努力。” “澳大利亚政府支持澳大利亚公民，这就是我们所做的。” 阿桑奇的抵达结束了一段传奇故事，他在英国戒备森严的监狱里呆了五年多，在伦敦厄瓜多尔大使馆避难了七年，抗争因性侵犯指控而被引渡到瑞典和面临 18 项刑事指控的美国。 这些指控源于维基解密在 2010 年公布了数十万份有关华盛顿在阿富汗和伊拉克战争的美国机密军事文件，这是美国历史上最大规模的机密信息泄露事件之一。 早些时候在美国领土塞班岛举行的三小时听证会上，阿桑奇承认了一项密谋获取和披露机密国防文件的刑事罪名，但他表示，他相信保护言论自由的美国宪法第一修正案保护了他的言论自由和活动。 美国首席地区法官雷蒙娜·V·曼格洛纳接受了他的认罪，并指出美国政府表示阿桑奇的行为没有造成个人受害者。 由于阿桑奇已经在英国监狱服刑，她释放了他，并提前祝他生日快乐，他 7 月 3 日满 53 岁。
