SAIPAN, Northern Mariana Islands — WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has arrived in Saipan ahead of an expected guilty plea in a deal with the US Justice Department that will set him free to return home to Australia.
The plane carrying the eccentric computer expert and internet publisher touched down more than two hours before the scheduled start of a plea hearing, in which he is set to admit to a felony for publishing US military secrets under a deal that spares him prison time in America after years spent jailed in the United Kingdom while fighting extradition to America.
The hearing, taking place in the Northern Mariana Islands, a US commonwealth in the Pacific, is the stunning culmination of the US government’s yearslong pursuit of the publisher who has been painted both as a hero and a reckless criminal for exposing hundreds of thousands of sensitive military documents.
The US Justice Department agreed to hold the hearing on the remote island because Assange opposed coming to the continental US and because it’s near Australia, where he will return after he enters his plea.
AP
