Julian Assange freed LIVE updates: WikiLeaks founder ‘revealed truthful, newsworthy information’, legal team says; Assange to return to Australia

The charter flight carrying Julian Assange has flown out of the Saipan airport as it heads for Canberra.

According to flight tracking website FlightAware, the VistaJet199 has taken off about 1.01pm local time.

The six and a half hour flight is set to land about 7.32 AEST in Canberra.

North Asia Correspondent Lisa Visentin captured the moment Julian Assange walked out of the Saipan court as a free man.

Reporters can be heard asking “how does it feel to be a free man” as Assange walks through the media scrum flanked by his lawyers before getting into the car.

Watch below for the moment he walks free.

Independent MP Andrew Wilkie, who is co-chair of the “bring Julian Assange home parliamentary group”, says it is “thrilling news” WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been freed.

“It would be remiss of me not to acknowledge, not just the members of the parliamentary group, but also the federal government,” Wilkie said at a press conference in federal parliament.

“I will flag, though, one alarming issue. And that is today, on US territory, a precedent was set for the charging and conviction of a journalist for doing their job.

“That is a really alarming precedent. It’s the sort of thing we’d expect in an authoritarian or totalitarian country, it is not what we would expect from the United States or a similar country like Australia.”

Labor MP and co-chair of the parliamentary group Josh Wilson said it was now incredible that Assange is now free.

“When you consider that he’s been deprived of his liberty for 14 years prior to today, it’s something that millions of people around the world have worked for,” he said.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has left the Saipan court, walking outside for the first time as a free man since 2010.

Assange walked outside and smiled at reporters.

He did not say anything as he walked to the car.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been thanked by Julian Assange’s lawyer Jennifer Robinson, as she says this case is the “greatest threat” to the First Amendment.

“I am Julian Assange’s counsel. His longest serving counsel. Today is a historic day. … after 14 years of legal battles, Julian Assange can go home a free man. This also brings to an end a case which has been recognised as the greatest threat to the First Amendment in the 21st century,” she said.

Robinson gave thanks in particular to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Australian ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd.

“It is a huge relief to Julian Assange, to his friends, family, supporters, to us, and everyone who believes in free speech around the world, that he can now return home to Australia and be reunited with his family,” she said.

“For all of the support that we have received from home in Australia. In particular, I want to thank our Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for his statesmanship, his principled leadership and his diplomacy, which made this outcome possible.

“I also want to thank our Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus, our Foreign Minister Penny Wong and give particular thanks to our US ambassador and former prime minister Kevin Rudd for his adept diplomacy and his relentless efforts in Washington that facilitated our negotiations with [the] US government and this outcome.

“I also want to thank our high commissioner in London, Stephen Smith, whose tireless work enabled us all to be here today.”

The work of WikiLeaks will continue after Julian Assange’s release, lawyer Barry Pollack tells the press pack.

“WikiLeaks’ work will continue and Mr Assange, I have no doubt, will be continuing force for freedom of speech and transparency in government. He is a powerful voice and a voice that cannot and should not be silenced,” Pollack said.

Pollack said the court today determined that no harm was caused by Assange’s publication.

“We know that they were newsworthy, we know that they were quoted by every major news outlet on the planet and we know that they revealed important information. That is called journalism,” he said.

“The United States prosecuted that, they exposed Mr Assange to hundreds years in prison. That is what has a chilling effect. Today, a decision that gives Mr Assange the chance to go home, the chilling fact is that United States pursues journalism as a crime.”

Julian Assange’s legal team have left the court and are now speaking on the case before the media.

“The prosecution of Julian Assange is unprecedented in the 100 years of the Espionage Act, it has never been used by the United States to pursue a publisher, a journalist, like Mr Assange,” Assange’s US lawyer Barry Pollack said standing next to Assange’s UK and Australian counsel, Jennifer Robinson.

“Mr Assange revealed truthful, newsworthy information, including revealing that the United States had committed war crimes,” Pollack continued.

“He has suffered tremendously in his fight for free speech, for freedom of the press, and to ensure that the American public and the world community gets truthful and important newsworthy information.

“We firmly believe that Mr Assange never should have been charged under the Espionage Act and engaged in [an] exercise that journalists engage in every day – and we are thankful that they do.”

Lawyers for the US government have also withdrawn the extradition request for Assange with the UK.

Assange thanks the judge and shakes the hands of his legal team, including Australian lawyer Jen Robinson. He also shakes hands with US counsel Matthew McKenzie.

Judge Mangoloa then wishes the Australian a happy birthday.

“Mr Assange … an early happy birthday to you,” she says.

“I understand your birthday is next week. I hope you will start your new life in a positive manner.”

Court is then adjourned.

Julian Assange’s legal team stepped outside the federal court in the Northern Mariana Islands to address the media earlier. You can replay the feed below.

It comes after Assange pleaded guilty to a single Espionage Act charge of conspiring to unlawfully obtain and disseminate classified national defence information.

Saipan: Judge Ramona Manglona starts by saying that “timing matters” and the fact this matter was before her in 2024, after he had served time in Belmarsh prison, was important.

She says had it been brought to her in 2012 she would have been less inclined to accept the plea deal.

She also notes that there was “no personal victim here” as a result of the dissemination of information by WikiLeaks.

Also relevant, she said, was the fact that his co-conspirator Chelsea Manning had served seven years in prison before her sentence was commuted.

“It appears that your 62 months in prison is very reasonable and proportionate to Ms Manning’s actual prison time.”

She imposes a sentence of time served with no supervision.

The judge adds that with her pronouncement, Assange will be able to walk out of this court a free man.

“I hope there will be some peace restored,” she says.