London [UK], June 27: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has arrived in his native Australia to be reunited with his family and start a new life as a free man.
He flew into the country's capital Canberra on Wednesday in the final act of an extraordinary few days following his dramatic release from a London prison.
He will be met by his wife Stella, children Gabriel and Max, father John and other members of his family for an emotional reunion.
His freedom followed a two-hour court appearance before a judge in the US territory of the Northern Mariana Islands in the Pacific just after midnight, where he pleaded guilty to a single charge after the US dropped 17 other espionage charges against him.
Because of the five years he has spent in Belmarsh prison, mainly in solitary confinement, he was told he was free to leave.
Assange left the UK on Monday evening and flew to Saipan via Bangkok after the plea deal was signed on June 19.
Speaking outside court after the hearing, Assange's US lawyer Barry Pollack said his prosecution was "unprecedented" and the WikiLeaks founder "suffered tremendously in his fight for free speech."
Pollack said: "The prosecution of Julian Assange is unprecedented in the 100 years of the Espionage Act, it has never been used by the United States to pursue a publisher, a journalist, like Mr Assange.
"Mr Assange revealed truthful, important and newsworthy information, including revealing that the United States had committed war crimes, and he has suffered tremendously in his fight for free speech, for freedom of the press, and to ensure that the American public and the world community gets truthful and important, newsworthy information."
He added that they "firmly believe that Mr Assange never should have been charged under the Espionage Act."
He said: "There was a very narrow agreed upon set of facts here and Mr Assange acknowledges that of course, he accepted documents from Chelsea Manning, and published many of those documents because it was in the world's interest that those documents be published.
"Unfortunately, that violates the terms of the Espionage Act. That's what we acknowledged today. We also said Mr Assange said very clearly that he believes there should be First Amendment protection for that conduct. But the fact of the matter is, as written, the Espionage Act does not have a defence for the First Amendment."
Pollack added that the court "determined that no harm was caused by Mr Assange's publications." Jennifer Robinson, another of Assange's lawyers, said the case set "a dangerous precedent" which should be a "concern" to journalists and people around the world.
"The US is seeking to exercise extra-territorial jurisdiction over all of you without giving you constitutional free speech protections, and anyone who cares about free speech and democratic accountability should stand against it," she said.
The plea deal brings to an end a criminal case of international intrigue and to the US government's pursuit of a publisher whose secret-sharing website made him a cause celebre among many press freedom advocates who said he acted as a journalist to expose US military wrongdoing.
Source: Qatar Tribune
