Julian Assange Walk Out Of Court Room As A "Free Man" After Pleading Guilty (image@wikileaks)

Julian Assange, the Wikileaks founder, walked out of a US court as a free man calling an end to the 12-year-long legal battle. He walked out after pleading  guilty for obtaining and publishing classified American military secrets.

He was charged with a single felony charge of violating the Espionage Act. He argued in the US district court in Saipan that posting the sensitive military intel should be protected by the First Amendment. He said as a journalist he has encouraged his sources to provide information that was said to be ‘classified’, in order to publish that information.

Read also: Julian Assange Freed From UK Jail After Plea Deal With US

Assange said the First Amendment Act protect the said move. He added that, “I believe the First Amendment and the Espionage Act are in contradiction of each other, but I accept that it would be difficult to win such a case given all the circumstances”.

His lawyers also made the same argument outside the court room. They said Assange should not have charged with the Espionage Act.

Reportedly, the Wikileaks founder cracked a smile as US District Judge Ramona Manglona pronounced him a “free man”. He was straight faced and declined to answer the questions of reporters as he exited the courthouse.

He is expected to take a private plane to his home in Australia for the first time in more than a decade. His lawyer said he is looking forward to reuniting with his wife and his children and getting back home to Australia.

Assange is an Australian editor, publisher and activist who founded Wikileaks in 2006. Wikileaks is a non-profit media organisation and publisher of leaked documents.

Notably, under the terms of plea, Assange will not spend another day behind the bars after he received credit for the time he spent in a high-security British prison. Before he was taken to prison, he sheltered in the Ecuadorian Embassy for years to avoid extradition to Sweden over rape and sexual assault allegations, which he has denied.

The case, which is closed now, started in 2010, when a one woman accused him of rape and another one accused him of molestation, eventually leading to Swedish police issuing an international arrest warrant.

Read also: US Journalist Evan Gershkovich To Stand Trial In Russia On Espionage Charges

It was in the same year, he Wikileaks published series of leaks from the US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning. The leaks included footage if a US airstrike in Baghdad, US military logs from Afghanistan and Iraq wars and US diplomatic cables. He won multiple awards for publishing and journalism.

He entered the Ecuadorian Embassy in an asylum bid which was granted in 2012, after a district court in Britain determined Assange should be hauled back to Sweden. However, the Swedish prosecutor later dropped the investigation fully in 2019.

His asylum was withdrawn following a series of disputes with Ecuadorian authorities. The police were invited to the Embassy, and he was arrested. Assange was found guilty of breaching the United Kingdom Bail Act, and was sentenced to 50 weeks in prison.

The US government unsealed an indictment charging him with conspiracy to commit computer intrusion related to the leaks provided by Manning. The government also unsealed new indictments against Assange, charging him with violating the Espionage Act of 1917, alleging that he conspired with hackers.

Assange was imprisoned in HM Prison Belmarsh in London from 2019 April to 2024 June.

The court also ordered him to destroy the information given by Manning, providing an affidavit, said media report.