Assange, 52, has agreed to plead guilty to a single criminal count of conspiring to obtain and disclose classified US national defence documents, according to filings in the US District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands.
Assange is due to be sentenced to 62 months of time already served at a hearing on the island of Saipan at 9am local time on Wednesday.
Assange left Belmarsh prison in the UK on Monday before being bailed by the UK High Court and boarding a flight Stansted Airport that afternoon, WikiLeaks confirmed.
A video posted on X by WikiLeaks showed Assange dressed in a blue shirt and jeans signing a document before boarding a private jet.
Julian Assange boards flight at London Stansted Airport at 5PM (BST) Monday June 24th. This is for everyone who worked for his freedom: thank you.— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) #FreedJulianAssange pic.twitter.com/Pqp5pBAhSQJune 25, 2024
He will return to Australia after the hearing, the WikiLeaks statement added, referring to the hearing in Saipan.
"Julian Assange is free," WikiLeaks posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
"He left Belmarsh maximum security prison on the morning of 24 June, after having spent 1901 days there. He was granted bail by the High Court in London and was released at Stanstead airport during the afternoon, where he boarded a plane and departed the UK.
"This is the result of a global campaign that spanned grass-roots organisers, press freedom campaigners, legislators and leaders from across the political spectrum, all the way to the United Nations.
"This created the space for a long period of negotiations with the US Department of Justice, leading to a deal that has not yet been formally finalised. We will provide more information as soon as possible."
JULIAN ASSANGE IS FREE— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) Julian Assange is free. He left Belmarsh maximum security prison on the morning of 24 June, after having spent 1901 days there. He was granted bail by the High Court in London and was released at Stansted airport during the afternoon, where he boarded a…June 24, 2024
Assange's wife Stella thanked supporters as she announced he was "free".
In a statement posted on X, she said: "Julian is free!!!! Words cannot express our immense gratitude to YOU- yes YOU, who have all mobilised for years and years to make this come true. THANK YOU. tHANK YOU. THANK YOU."
A lawyer for Assange did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
WikiLeaks in 2010 released hundreds of thousands of classified US military documents on Washington's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq - the largest security breaches of their kind in US military history - along with swaths of diplomatic cables.
Assange was indicted during former President Donald Trump's administration over WikiLeaks' mass release of secret US documents, which were leaked by Chelsea Manning, a former US military intelligence analyst who was also prosecuted under the Espionage Act.
The trove of more than 700,000 documents included diplomatic cables and battlefield accounts such as a 2007 video of a US Apache helicopter firing at suspected insurgents in Iraq, killing a dozen people including two Reuters news staff. That video was released in 2010.
The charges against Assange sparked outrage among his many global supporters who have long argued that Assange as the publisher of WikiLeaks should not face charges typically used against federal government employees who steal or leak information.
Many press freedom advocates have argued that criminally charging Assange represents a threat to free speech.
Assange was first arrested in Britain in 2010 on a European arrest warrant after Swedish authorities said they wanted to question him over sex-crime allegations that were later dropped.
Julian Assange's family say his legal battles have taken a toll on his physical and mental health. (AP PHOTO)
He fled to Ecuador's embassy, where he remained for seven years, to avoid extradition to Sweden.
He was dragged out of the embassy in 2019 and jailed for skipping bail.
He has been in Belmarsh jail ever since, from where he has for almost five years been fighting extradition to the US.
While in Belmarsh he married his partner Stella with whom he had two children while he was holed up in the Ecuadorean embassy.
Assange's family and supporters have said his physical and mental health have suffered during more than a decade of legal battles.
Agencies
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