Julian Assange plea deal live: ‘elated’ Stella Assange says couple’s children unaware their father to be freed

Earlier former Australian foreign minister Alexander Downer said he did not think that Julian Assange would get a “hero’s welcome” when he arrived in Australia. These demonstrators outside the British Consulate in Melbourne have clearly taken a different view.

The editor of WikiLeaks, Kristinn Hrafnsson, has spoken to PA Media. He told the news agency:

This is the result of a long, long process which has been going on for some time. It has been a tough battle, but the focus now is on Julian being reunited with his family. The most important thing is that Julian is free and he is finally able to enjoy the big blue sky. Details of what will happen now will come out in the next 24 hours. His family will be waiting for him in Australia.

Stella Assange has said that the deal between US authorities that has led to the release of Julian Assange will be made public, but that details cannot be released until it is signed by a judge.

Assange is at the moment on a stopover in Bangkok, and is reportedly travelling to a hearing on the island of Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands, where he will be sentenced at 9am local time on Wednesday (11pm GMT on Tuesday).

Stella Assange told listeners of the BBC Radio 4 Today programme in the UK that “there is an agreement in principle between Julian and the Department of Justice. And that has to be signed off by a judge”. She said she was limited in what she could say until that happens.

She confirmed he would plead guilty to one charge “concerning the Espionage Act and obtaining and disclosing National Defence information”. Asked if it was difficult for her husband to accept the charge, she said “I don’t want to say too much until it has been signed off by a judge. But the important thing here is that the deal involves time served, and that if he signed it, he would be able to walk free.”

She said that the deal had come as a direct result of Assange being granted leave to mount a fresh appeal against his extradition to the US at the high court in London in May.

Stella Assange described the last few days as “a whirlwind of emotions” and said she was “just elated”. She said that the couple’s two young children are in Australia with her, but have not yet been told that their father is to be freed.

She said “he has been in Belmarsh prison for over five years in relation to this outrageous case, which is criminalising the publication and disclosure of information that incriminates states.”

She told listeners that the family have not yet had a chance to discuss plans for the future, saying the priority was “for Julian to get healthy again”. She said “he’s been in a terrible state for five years” and that they wanted “time and privacy” for them to be able to start a new chapter of their lives with their children.

“It’s always been quite extraordinary,” Stella Assange said. “But I’m just so emotional now. You know, this is finally over.”

Julian Assange’s wife has said that the couple’s two children are in Australia with her, waiting for their father to arrive, but have not yet been told that he is to be freed. She told listeners of the BBC Radio 4 Today programme that all they have been told is that there is a “big surprise” waiting for them in Australia.

Saying that arrangements for Assange’s release had been “touch and go” over the last 72 hours, she said that she and the two children had packed with barely any notice to head to Australia, flying on Sunday.

She said:

All I told them was that there was a big surprise on the morning that we left. I told them we were heading to the airport. And we got on the plane and I told them that we were going to visit our family, their cousin, their grandfather and so on.

And they still don’t know. We’ve been very careful because obviously no one can stop a five and a seven-year-old from, you know, shouting it from the rooftops at any given moment. And because of the sensitivity around the judge having to sign off the deal we’ve been very careful, just gradually, incrementally telling them information. They are very excited to be in Australia though.

Assange’s children have never seen him outside the confines of Belmarsh prison, she said. She confirmed that they would be told before they met up with their dad.

Stella Assange has said that the priority is for Julian Assange to “get healthy again”, to be in touch with nature and to have “time and privacy”. She said they have not had time to discuss any plans for the future.

More details soon …

Stella Assange has said that the deal made between US authorities and Julian Assange will be made public. She has described it as “a very interesting deal” and said “I can’t really talk about it in detail. I certainly have views about the deal, but I don’t want to jeopardise anything.”

Stella Assange has told listeners to the BBC in the UK that the release of her husband Julian Assange had been “touch and go” over the last couple of days, and that she is limited in what she can say until the “agreement in principle” has been signed off by a judge.

More details soon …

The former minister for foreign affairs of Australia, Alexander Downer, has said he does not think that Julian Assange will receive a hero’s welcome when he reaches Australia. He told listeners of the BBC Radio 4 Today programme in the UK that Assange had done something morally “terrible”. He said:

He has pleaded guilty. That is part of the plea bargain. So what he did was a criminal offence, and it was a terrible thing to do, morally as well, endangering people’s lives in that way. It is just completely inappropriate and I don’t think many Australians have sympathy for it.

Assange’s wife, Stella, is due to give an interview on the radio in the UK shortly. We will bring you the key lines that emerge.

Stella Assange has posted to social media a picture of a phone with the Sydney Opera House in the background, saying it showed “Julian calling into Sydney from Stansted airport last night (his daytime)”

Alan Rusbridger, editor-in-chief of the Guardian from 1995 to 2015, has commented on Julian Assange’s release, posting to social media:

Good news that Assange is apparently free. Enough was enough. But his treatment was a warning to journalists and whistleblowers to keep quiet in future. And I suspect it will have worked.

It’s just after 1pm in Bangkok, where a plane thought to be carrying Julian Assange has landed, en route to a plea deal hearing in the Northern Mariana Islands.

• WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been released from a British prison and is expected to plead guilty to violating US espionage law, in a deal that would allow him to return home to his native Australia. Assange agreed to plead guilty to a single charge, according to filings in the US district court for the Northern Mariana Islands.

• WikiLeaks posted on social media a video of its founder boarding a flight at London’s Stansted airport on Monday evening. The organisation said that Assange left Belmarsh prison on Monday morning. He is expected to be on his way to Saipan, in the Northern Mariana Islands.

• Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese confirmed Assange had left the UK, adding that the case had “dragged on for too long”. According to Albanese, Assange is being accompanied by Australia’s high commissioner to the UK, Stephen Smith.

• Assange was set to be reunited with his wife, Stella, who confirmed on X that he was free. She thanked Assange’s supporters, saying “words cannot express our immense gratitude”. Assange’s mother Christine welcomed the developments, saying “I am grateful my son’s ordeal is finally coming to an end.”

• Under the deal, which must be approved by a judge, Assange is likely to be credited for the five years he has already served and face no new jail time. In a letter to a federal judge in the district court for the Northern Mariana Islands, a senior justice department official said that he was being sent to Saipan because of its “proximity to the defendant’s country of citizenship”.

• Some experts warned that a conviction for Assange, even on a single count, could have a devastating and prolonged impact on investigative and national security journalism. Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University warned that the outcome could “cast a long shadow over the most important kinds of journalism, not just in this country but around the world”.

• Former US vice-president Mike Pence slammed the plea deal on Twitter as a “miscarriage of justice” that “dishonors the service and sacrifice of the men and women of our Armed Forces.”

Australia’s former deputy prime minister has cautiously welcomed news that Assange will plead guilty to a felony charge in a deal with the US justice department that will allow him to walk free.

Barnaby Joyce was part of an Australian delegation that travelled to the US earlier this year to lobby lawmakers over Assange’s case.

The plane thought to be carrying Assange, on his way to enter a plea deal in a US court in the Northern Mariana Islands, has just landed in Bangkok, according to online tracker FlightRadar.

The chartered plane landed after noon at Don Mueang International Airport, north of the Thai capital. It is unclear if the plane is only refuelling or how Assange will continue traveling to the Northern Mariana Islands.

Australia’s foreign minister, Penny Wong has delivered a statement on the release of Julian Assange today, and spoke about the advocacy of the current government to secure the release of the Wikileaks founder.

The prime minister and I have been very clear - Mr Assange’s case has dragged on for too long.

Over the last two years, the Albanese government has advocated for him to come home. That advocacy has been led by the prime minister and the prime minister has been very clear about the priority here he ... gives to the Assange case ...

The prime minister has led these efforts and has personally raised this - Mr Assange’s case - at the most senior levels, including with [US] president [Joe] Biden and [UK] prime minister [Rishi] Sunak ... I know that there are many around the world and in Australia who have passionately advocated for Mr Assange ... we have consistently stated that there is nothing to be served by the ongoing incarceration of Mr Julian Assange.

My colleague Jonathan Yerushalmy has written this very helpful explainer to catch you up on the Assange saga. Including this:

Why has he been released?

For the past five years, Assange has been imprisoned in a high-security prison in south London where he has been denied bail on the grounds that he is deemed to be a flight risk. Throughout this time, his family and supporters say his physical and mental health has been declining.

In 2021, a UK court said that Assange could be extradited to the US, but earlier this year he won the right to appeal that verdict.

In February, the Australian parliament passed a motion that called on the US and UK governments to allow Assange to return to his native country. Then in April, the US president, Joe Biden, said he was considering a request from Australia to drop the prosecution against Assange.

Although its unclear why he has been released now, Assange’s family – including his mother – said on Tuesday that the end of his “ordeal” was down to “quiet diplomacy”, while his father thanked the Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese.

What’s in the deal?

Assange is scheduled to appear in a federal court in the Northern Mariana Islands, a US commonwealth in the western Pacific, where he is expected to plead guilty to one charge under the Espionage Act of conspiring to unlawfully obtain and disseminate classified national defence information. The extradition request is expected to be dropped and Assange won’t face any other charges.

The hearing is taking place in the Northern Mariana Islands because of Assange’s opposition to travelling to the US mainland and the court’s proximity to Australia.

Prosecutors have agreed to a sentence of five years, but have said the time already served in a British prison will count towards this. This means that he will probably walk free after the sentencing.

The guilty plea must still be approved by a judge, but if it is, he is expected to return to Australia after the sentencing.

John Shipton, Assange’s father, told Australian media on Tuesday that it appears “Julian will be able to enjoy an ordinary life with his family and his wife, Stella”.

Read the full explainer here:

Hi, this is Kate Lyons, I’m taking over the blog for the next while.

The Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese has been asked a question about Assange in parliament and whether today’s developments meant he was “finally coming home”.

Albanese and his cabinet supported a parliamentary motion put forward by independent MP Andrew Wilkie earlier this year, urging the UK and US to allow Assange to return home to Australia.

He said today in parliament:

The government is certainly aware that Julian Assange has legal proceedings scheduled in the US... Given these proceedings are ongoing it is not appropriate to provide further details comment. I will say the Australian Government has continued to provide consular assistance to Julian Assange through the UK high commissioner, Stephen Smith, who travelled with Julian Assange when he left the UK, and US Ambassador Kevin Rudd who is also providing important assistance.

I have been a very clear as both the Labor leader and opposition but also as prime minister that regardless of the views that people have about Julian Assange and his activities, the case has dragged on for too long, there is nothing to be gained by his continued incarceration and we want him brought home to Australia.

We have engaged and advocated Australia’s interest using all appropriate channels to support a positive outcome and I have done that since very early on in my prime ministership.

I will have more to say when these legal proceedings have concluded, which I hope will be very soon and I will report as appropriate at that time.

Full video statements from Stella Assange and Wikileaks editor-in-chief Kristinn Hrafnsson here: