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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Swamiji fires gun into the air in Kalaburagi village, video goes viral
Kalaburagi: An incident involving a swamiji firing a gun into the air has been reported from Udachan village in Afzalpur taluk of Kalaburagi district. The act, captured on video, has since gone viral on social media.
The swamiji has been identified as Sri Shantalinga Shivacharya, pontiff of the Hiremath of Sri Shankaralingeshwara Samsthana. According to reports, the incident took place on Sunday evening within the premises of the math, where the swamiji allegedly fired a single-barrel gun into the air.
This is not the first time the swami has courted controversy. Last year, he was reportedly found driving erratically under the influence of alcohol in Salotagi village of neighbouring Indi taluk, following which members of the public confronted him. He later fled from the math, sources said.
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More recently, during the annual fair of the Sri Shankaralingeshwara Math in Udachan village, the swami had arrived at the village with police protection, claiming to be the rightful pontiff of the math. Despite opposition from villagers, he reportedly went ahead and conducted rituals related to the fair.
The latest incident of firing the gun into the air has triggered criticism, especially after the video surfaced online. Further action, if any, is awaited from the authorities.
