Julian Assange is set to return to Australia as a free man, news of which has come as a surprise to many.
It appears to be the end of a saga that goes back 14 years to 2010.
Here's a recap of the situation to get you up to speed.
Look back over Wednesday's blog on Julian Assange's return to Australia.
Who is Julian Assange?
Assange is the founder of WikiLeaks, a whistleblower website renowned for exposing sensitive information.
He is an Australian citizen and was born in Townsville, Queensland, in 1971.
The 52-year-old has been a fixture in international headlines for more than a decade due to his plight to avoid retribution for his work, claiming asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London before being moved to a maximum-security prison.
Assange's case relates to accusations of spying on the United States government after he published a tranche of material detailing alleged war crimes committed by US armed forces during incursions in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The thousands of documents were provided to WikiLeaks by whistleblower Chelsea Manning, who served as a US Army intelligence analyst in Iraq at the time.
Assange's imprisonment became highly publicised and re-ignited debate around protection of national security and freedom of the press.
What did Julian Assange do?
He was accused of sexual assault in Sweden and espionage offences in the US.
In 2010, he was arrested in the UK over the Swedish charges.
What did Sweden charge Assange with?
- One count of unlawful coercion
- Two counts of sexual molestation
- One count of rape
Assange denied the allegations, claiming they were part of a plot to discredit him and extradite him to the US — whose military secrets he'd exposed on his WikiLeaks website.
In court documents filed in March 2018, the US Department of Justice charged him with conspiracy to commit computer intrusion (but this was only announced in April 2019).
In May 2019, the department brought a further 17 offences against him under the US Espionage Act, bringing the total number of charges up to 18.
Here's the list of the full charges against Assange as posted by the US Department of Justice.
What did the US charge Assange with?
- One count of Conspiracy to Receive National Defense Information
- Seven counts of Obtaining National Defense Information
- Nine counts of Disclosure of National Defense Information
- One count of Conspiracy to Commit Computer Intrusion
The computer intrusion charge had a maximum jail term of five years.
Each of the other espionage charges had a maximum jail term of 10 years.
That means that Assange could have faced a maximum sentence of 175 years in prison.
What happened to the charges?
Swedish authorities dropped the sexual assault charges against Assange in November 2019.
At the time, the Swedish Prosecution Authority said the corroborating evidence had weakened considerably "due to the long period of time that has elapsed since the events in question".
As for the US espionage charges, Assange has entered a plea deal, admitting to just one of the 18 offences.
In a court document obtained by Reuters, it appears Assange will plead guilty to the Conspiracy to Receive National Defense Information charge.
The document says he'll be sentenced for the single charge in a court in Saipan, which is in the Northern Mariana Islands, on Wednesday at 9am AEST.
The Northern Mariana Islands are a US territory in the Pacific Ocean near Guam.
It's expected he'll be sentenced to 62 months' jail — which is a little longer than five years.
Why is Julian Assange a 'free man'?
Because the sentence is likely to take into account the time he spent in a UK prison awaiting the charges.
How long did Julian Assange spend at the embassy?
Seven years.
Assange was holed up at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, claiming asylum in 2012.
He took refuge there until the Ecuadorian government withdrew his asylum in April 2019, when he was arrested and carried out of the London building by police in April 2019.
He was officially arrested for "failing to surrender to the court" back in 2012.
How long did Julian Assange spend in prison?
Five years.
Assange was sentenced to 50 weeks in prison for breaching his bail conditions relating to the Swedish sex assault charges.
That sentence expired in September 2019.
But he remained in London's maximum-security Belmarsh prison, where he awaited possible extradition to the US.
His team says he spent a total of 1,901 days behind bars.
Despite exhaustive diplomacy efforts and legal battles, he was repeatedly denied bail in the five-year period due to fears he would abscond upon release.
A motion — with bipartisan support — was passed through Australia's federal parliament calling on the US and UK to end his prosecution, but had no effect.
No particular reason has been provided by the parties lobbying for Assange's release as to why his decision to enter a guilty plea deal comes now.
Where is Julian Assange now?
His team says he's travelling back to Australia from the UK.
He's expected to appear in person in the Northern Mariana Islands courtroom on Wednesday morning.
What is WikiLeaks?
WikiLeaks is a media organisation that aims to publish censored or restricted material involving war, spying and corruption.
Assange launched it in 2006.
According to the site, it has published more than 10 million sensitive documents.
It hasn't published since 2021.
ABC with Reuters
Posted, updated
