Julian Assange has been released from British prison and is flying to his native Australia, Wikileaks account said in the X social network, reported RIA Novosti.
„Julian Assange is free”, the statement said.
Wikileaks explained that the day before, a court in London had decided to release Assange on bail from Belmarsh prison, where he had spent 1,901 days trying to contest his extradition to the US.
The video accompanying the post shows a clean-shaven Assange holding a piece of paper and a pen before climbing the stairs to the plane.
„After more than five years spent in a two-by-three-meter cell in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day, he will soon be reunited with his wife Stella Assange and the children, who have only seen their father behind bars.“ , the post said. .
News of his release was preceded by reports that he was preparing to strike a deal with US prosecutors to plead guilty in exchange for time already served.
According to CBS, the deal should fully resolve all legal claims against Assange. The TV channel specifies that the “finalization“ will take place on Wednesday in the Federal District Court of the Northern Mariana Islands, a US possession in the Pacific Ocean.
Assange gained worldwide fame for founding the WikiLeaks website, where hundreds of thousands of classified materials were published, including video footage of the deaths of Iraqi civilians as a result of a US helicopter attack in Baghdad.