Whistleblower Julian Assange freed from UK prison after striking plea deal with US
London: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has reached an agreement to plead guilty to revealing military secrets in a US court in exchange for his freedom, ending a protracted legal battle that has spanned over a decade. According to court documents released Monday night, Assange will plead guilty to a single count of conspiracy to obtain and disseminate national defense information.
Assange, who has been in custody in Britain, is scheduled to appear in a US court in the Northern Mariana Islands, a US territory in the Pacific, later this week. WikiLeaks confirmed early Tuesday morning that "Julian Assange is free" and had left the UK.
Under the plea agreement, Assange is expected to be sentenced to 62 months in prison. With credit for the five years he has already served in a high-security British prison, he could soon return to his native Australia.
Assange, now 52, was initially sought by Washington for publishing hundreds of thousands of secret US documents in 2010 as the head of WikiLeaks. His release of military secrets about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan garnered him both praise as a champion of free speech and criticism for endangering US national security and intelligence sources.
The legal battle began with Assange's 2019 indictment by a US federal grand jury on 18 counts related to the publication of national security documents. His case took a dramatic turn when the British government approved his extradition in June 2022, a decision Assange appealed.
After spending seven years in Ecuador's London embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden over now-dropped sexual assault accusations, Assange was arrested and has since been detained in London's Belmarsh prison.
The plea deal's announcement comes just two weeks before Assange was scheduled to appeal the UK ruling approving his extradition to the US. His appeal was set to address whether he would receive First Amendment protections as a foreigner on trial in America.
The plea deal's conclusion was anticipated amid increasing pressure on President Joe Biden to drop the case. In February, the Australian government formally requested an end to the legal proceedings against Assange, a plea Biden said he would consider.
This plea bargain marks the end of nearly 14 years of legal turmoil for Assange, who has been both a hero to free speech advocates and a controversial figure accused of jeopardizing US national security.
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11-year-old dies by suicide after sexual assault in Bareilly; accused arrested
Bareilly (UP) (PTI): A 26-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting an 11-year-old girl, who later died by suicide due to trauma, police said on Wednesday.
The post-mortem report confirmed sexual assault and multiple injuries on the minor's body, including bite marks and nail scratches. The cause of death was found to be hanging, they said.
According to ASP (South) Anshika Verma, the incident came to light on 27 April, when the girl, a Class 8 student, was found hanging at her home in Deoria Abdullaganj village under the Mirganj police station area. Initially, the family reported the death as suicide and was reluctant to pursue police action.
"The autopsy report changed the course of the investigation. It confirmed sexual assault and noted severe physical trauma. The cause of death was confirmed as hanging," Verma said.
A breakthrough in the case came from the statement of the victim's younger sister, who told police that the accused, Zeeshan (26), a resident of the same village, frequently loitered near the minor's school and allegedly gave her small sums of money to keep his interactions with her a secret, she said.
Police said that on the day of the incident, the accused allegedly lured the minor and assaulted her. Distressed by the incident, the child later took her own life while her mother was away, police said.
"Based on technical surveillance, CCTV footage, and statements from the family, we established Zeeshan's involvement. He was arrested near the Mirganj weekly market on Tuesday," they said.
