CANBERRA, 26 Jun: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange returned to his homeland Australia aboard a charter jet and raised a celebratory clenched fist as his supporters cheered on Wednesday, hours after pleading guilty to obtaining and publishing U.S. military secrets in a deal with Justice Department prosecutors that concludes a drawn-out legal saga.
Assange told Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in a phone call from the capital Canberra’s airport tarmac that Australian government intervention in the U.S. prosecution had saved his life, Assange lawyer Jennifer Robinson said.
Assange embraced his wife Stella Assange and father John Shipton who were waiting on the tarmac, but avoided media at a news conference less than than two hours after he landed.
“Julian wanted me to sincerely thank everyone. He wanted to be here. But you have to understand what he’s been through. He needs time. He needs to recuperate and this is a process.” Stella Assange told reporters.
Assange was accused of receiving and publishing hundreds of thousands of war logs and diplomatic cables that included details of U.S. military wrongdoing in Iraq and Afghanistan. His activities drew an outpouring of support from press freedom advocates, who heralded his role in bringing to light military conduct that might otherwise have been concealed from view and warned of a chilling effect on journalists. Among the files published by WikiLeaks was a video of a 2007 Apache helicopter attack by American forces in Baghdad that killed 11 people, including two Reuters journalists.
The case came to a surprise end in a most unusual setting with Assange, 52, entering his plea in a U.S. district court in Saipan, the capital of the Northern Mariana Islands. The American commonwealth in the Pacific is relatively close to Assange’s native Australia and accommodated his desire to avoid entering the continental United States.
Albanese said Assange told him during their phone call he was looking forward to playing with his sons, conceived while the father was in self-exile in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London for seven years.
“He described it as a surreal and happy moment, his landing here in our national capital, Canberra,” Albanese told reporters in Parliament House. “I had a very warm discussion with him this evening. He was very generous in his praise of the Australian government’s efforts.”
Robinson said she became “very emotional” when she overheard Assange’s conversation with the prime minister.
“Julian thanked him and the team and told the prime minister that he had saved his life. And I don’t think that that’s an exaggeration,” Robinson said.
Assange’s British court hearings in which he fought extradition to the United States had heard evidence of his failing health and potential risk for self-harm in the U.S. penal system.
Assange was accompanied on the flights by Australian Ambassador to the United States Kevin Rudd and High Commissi-oner to the United Kingdom Stephen Smith, both of whom played key roles in negotiating his freedom with London and Washington.
The flights were paid for by the “Assange team,” De-puty Prime Minister Richard Marles said, adding his government played a role in facilitating the transport.
Albanese told Parliament that Assange’s freedom, after he spent five years in a British prison fighting extradition to the U.S., was the result of his government’s “careful, pati-ent and determined work.”
It is unclear where Assange will go from Canberra and what his future plans are. His South African-born lawyer wife and mother of his two children, Stella Assange, has been in Australia for days awaiting his release. (AP)