Assange departs Bangkok en route to Saipan A plane carrying Julian Assange has departed Bangkok en route to Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands in the Pacific after refuelling. The WikiLeaks founder is due to be sentenced at a hearing on the island of Saipan on Wednesday. Summary of the day so far Julian Assange is on a plane departing from Bangkok, Thailand en route to the island Saipan, in the Northern Mariana Islands. The WikiLeaks founder was earlier released from Belmarsh prison in London on Monday. Assange, 52, is scheduled to be sentenced in a US district court in Saipan at 9am local time on Wednesday (11pm GMT on Tuesday). He is expected to accept a charge under the US Espionage Act in front of a US federal judge. Under the deal, which must be approved by a judge, Assange is likely to be credited for the five years he has already served and face no new jail time. Experts have warned that the plea deal struck between the WikiLeaks founder and the US authorities could set a dangerous precedent. Many press freedom advocates have argued that criminally charging Assange represents a threat to free speech. There was a mixed reaction to the news of the plea deal across the US political spectrum. James Clapper, director of US national intelligence in 2010 when Assange and his WikiLeaks organization published secret US intelligence documents with a consortium of newspaper, said Assange had “paid his dues”. Former US vice-president Mike Pence, however, described Assange’s plea deal as “a miscarriage of justice and dishonors the service and sacrifice of the men and women of our armed forces and their families”. WikiLeaks said Assange had left Belmarsh prison on Monday morning, after 1,901 days of captivity there. He had spent the time, the organisation said, “in a 2x3 metre cell, isolated 23 hours a day”. Assange was set to be reunited with his wife, Stella, and their two children. Stella Assange, a human rights lawyer, spoke of her elation that he has been released and will soon be a “free man”. She said she had not yet informed their two boys, aged five and seven, of the plans for fear of the information leaking. Experts warn Assange plea deal could set dangerous precedent The next UK government must push the US for reassurance it will not pursue journalists for publishing classified information, human rights organisations and experts have argued after the release of Julian Assange. Experts have warned that the plea deal struck between the WikiLeaks founder and the US authorities – which will see him plead guilty to one charge under the Espionage Act, but avoid serving any additional time in custody – could set a dangerous precedent. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) called his release a “significant victory for media freedom” with its general secretary, Anthony Bellanger, adding: Had Assange gone to prison for the rest of his life, any reporter handed a classified document would fear facing a similar fate. But Seth Stern, director of advocacy for Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF), said it was “alarming” the plea had been pursued. He said: The plea deal won’t have the precedential effect of a court ruling, but it will still hang over the heads of national security reporters for years to come. It was a sentiment echoed by Stella Assange, who said her husband would seek a pardon after accepting the charge. She told Reuters: The fact that there is a guilty plea, under the Espionage Act in relation to obtaining and disclosing National Defence information is obviously a very serious concern for journalists and national security journalists in general. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) welcomed the release of Julian Assange while also warning of the “harmful” legal precedent set by the US government’s pursuit of the WikiLeaks founder under the Espionage Act. In a statement, the CPJ said the move opens the way for journalists to be tried under the Espionage Act if they receive classified material from whistleblowers, adding: “This should never have been the case.” Alan Rusbridger, the Guardian’s editor-in-chief from 1995 to 2015, who earlier described Julian Assange’s release as “good news”, said in a statement to Reuters: I’m sorry that it’s taken a plea on a charge of espionage because I don’t think actually anybody thinks that what he was doing was espionage… I think if the attempt was to chill national security reporting, I fear it’s probably worked. Writing in Prospect magazine, of which he is now editor, Rusbridger said the legal battle over Assange had become “something of an embarrassment”. “That Assange is free is, in my view, very good news,” Rusbridger writes. The downside is that he won that freedom by having to admit one offence under the 1917 US Espionage Act. Whatever Assange was, he was not a spy. Publisher, journalist, activist, information anarchist, whistleblower, impresario – he is all those things. But no one, not even the US government, seriously alleged that whatever he did in 2010/11 amounted to espionage. The former Guardian editor warns that using the “blunt instrument” of the Espionage Act sets off alarm bells for journalists. His treatment – along with more draconian laws in countries such as the UK and Australia – will undoubtedly have a chilling effect on genuine and legitimate reporting on national security issues. A result for government and the secret state. For the rest of us, not so much. The press freedom group PEN America has welcomed the resolution of the Julian Assange case. In a statement, the group said the US government’s pursuit of charges against the WikiLeaks founder has “posed an alarming threat to press freedom in the United States and globally, sending a chilling message to journalists and risking emboldening authoritarian governments”. Congress should seize this opportunity to immediately reform the Espionage Act to include an exception for information disclosures that advance the public interest. This move would send a strong signal in defense of press freedom, strengthening protections for journalists in the United States and reducing the risk of the law being wielded for political purposes in the future. Mexico’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, earlier celebrated the release of Julian Assange in a post on X writing that “at least in this case, the Statue of Liberty did not remain an empty symbol”. López Obrador has previously defended Assange’s innocence and offered asylum to the WikiLeaks founder. Assange “did not commit any serious crime, did not cause anyone’s death, did not violate any human rights and that he exercised his freedom”, he told reporters in 2022. He has also called Assange “the best journalist of our time”. Here are some images from the newswires showing a plane carrying Julian Assange leaving Don Mueang International Airport in Bangkok, en route to Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands. Gabriel Shipton, who is Julian Assange’s brother, has said he is “overjoyed” at his brother’s release and that the situation has been “surreal and overwhelming”. Shipton, in an interview with Democracy Now, said he, their father John Shipton, and Stella Assange are all looking forward to meeting him on the tarmac once he arrives in Australia. Shipton acknowledged the many years of advocacy at many levels across governments that led to today, noting that “the real pressure [came] from the Australian people that led the government to be able to advocate so strongly for Julian Assange”. Assange departs Bangkok en route to Saipan A plane carrying Julian Assange has departed Bangkok en route to Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands in the Pacific after refuelling. The WikiLeaks founder is due to be sentenced at a hearing on the island of Saipan on Wednesday. A plane carrying Julian Assange is due to take off shortly from Bangkok to the Northern Mariana Islands, his official campaign said. Summary of the day so far … Julian Assange, having been released from Belmarsh prison in London on Monday, is in Bangkok, en route to Saipan where he is expected to accept a charge under the US Espionage Act in front of a US federal judge. The 52-year-0ld WikiLeaks founder will plead guilty to a single criminal count of conspiring to obtain and disclose classified US national defence documents, according to filings in the island’s district court. Under the deal, he will be free to leave the court due to time already served and to travel on to Australia to be reunited with his family. Speaking from Australia, where she flew on Sunday to prepare her family’s new life, his wife, Stella Assange, a human rights lawyer, said she had not yet told the couple’s two young sons about their father’s release from incarceration. She said: “All I told them was that there was a big surprise. We’ve been very careful, because obviously, no one can stop a five- and a seven-year-old from, you know, shouting it from the rooftops at any given moment. Because of the sensitivity around the judge having to sign off the deal, we’ve been very careful, just gradually, incrementally telling them information”. Assange was arrested in the embassy in 2019 when Ecuador withdrew his asylum and allowed UK police to enter the building. He had been holed up in the embassy in Knightsbridge, avoiding extradition to Sweden over sexual assault allegations that Assange has always denied and which have since been dropped. Stella Assange has launched a fundraising appeal to cover the cost of the flight to take Assange from the UK to Australia, via Thailand and Saipan. She posted to social media to say that “he was not permitted to fly commercial airlines or routes to Saipan and onward to Australia”. Assange’s flight to Saipan is expected to take off a little after 4pm GMT, and it is believed he will appear in court at 9am local time on Wednesday morning, which is 11pm GMT on Tuesday. Former vice-president Mike Pence described Julian Assange’s plea deal as “a miscarriage of justice and dishonors the service and sacrifice of the men and women of our armed forces and their families”. “Julian Assange endangered the lives of our troops in a time of war and should have been prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” Pence said, adding: “There should be no plea deals to avoid prison for anyone that endangers the security of our military or the national security of the US. Ever” In 2016, WikiLeaks published emails from Democratic party operatives in the lead up to the US presidential election. US prosecutors said the emails were stolen by Russian intelligence and formed part of an operation to interfere in the election on behalf of Donald Trump. Pence was Trump’s vice-president when, in 2017, the then US attorney general, Jeff Sessions, said Assange’s arrest was a priority for the US. Gabriel Shipton, who is Julian Assange’s brother, has said “The Australian government has played a significant role in these last moments. They have played an integral role securing his release and getting him on that plane. But they couldn’t have done that without the support of the Australian people. We are very thankful for the Australian people and everyone around the world who has been advocating for Julian.” This is another handout screengrab showing Julian Assange in Bangkok. Brazil’s president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has reacted to the release of Julian Assange. Reuters reports he said: Today the world is a little better and less unfair. Julian Assange is free after 1,901 days in prison. His release and return home, albeit belatedly, represent a victory for democracy and the fight for press freedom. Film-maker Michael Moore, who put up a $20,0000 bond in 2010 for Assange’s release on bail, said this was a “happy day”. Moore said of Assange: “the good people of this world will never forget your sacrifice”, adding “Although 14 years of his life were stolen from him by a government of, yes, war criminals, they were never able to lay a hand on him”. “Hopefully, someday, this country of ours will apologise to him for this torture. In the meantime, let us all draw from him the kind of courage that is needed during our darkest times of aggression and the funding of foreign slaughter with our tax dollars,” Moore added. “It is also my hope that we will sometime soon return to having a vital and vibrant press that exists to uncover the lies and protect us, the citizens, from those who would seek to end our democracy”. In launching a fundraising appeal to cover Julian Assange’s travel costs from the UK to Australia via Thailand and Saipan, his wife Stella Assange has revealed “he was not permitted to fly commercial airlines or routes to Saipan and onward to Australia.”