WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange pleads guilty to espionage
Assange will be sentenced on September 23
The plea deal ends a years-long legal battle
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange pleaded guilty to a single espionage charge in front on a US judge Wednesday and walked free after his 12-year asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
Assange, 49, was arrested in London in April 2019 after spending seven years in the Ecuadorian embassy, where he had sought asylum to avoid extradition to Sweden to face charges of rape and sexual assault. Those charges have since been dropped.
The espionage charge that Assange pleaded guilty to relates to his role in the release of hundreds of thousands of classified US military and diplomatic documents by WikiLeaks in 2010. The documents included the "Collateral Murder" video, which showed US soldiers firing on unarmed civilians in Iraq.
Assange will be sentenced on September 23. He faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
The plea deal ends a years-long legal battle between Assange and the US government. The US government had been trying to extradite Assange to the US to face charges under the Espionage Act since 2010.
Assange's supporters have hailed the plea deal as a victory, saying it means he will not be extradited to the US and face the possibility of life in prison.
However, critics of Assange have said that the plea deal is too lenient and that he should be punished more severely for his role in the release of classified information.
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