Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has been released from prison in the UK as part of a plea deal with the US government.
The 52-year-old – who came to the international spotlight in 2010 after publishing a series of leaks from US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning – was today released from the high security Belmarsh jail in London.
For years, the US has argued that the hundreds of thousands of classified military documents – which disclosed information about the Iraq and Afghanistan wars – endangered lives.
The activist was charged with conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defence information amid what has been the largest security breach of its kind in the US military history.
Footage of Assange published on X in the early hours of this morning shows his departure from Belmarsh where he had been locked away for the past five years.
He is headed towards Stansted Airport where he boarded a private charter plane.
It is understood that the Australian national has agreed to plead guilty to a single criminal charge of conspiring to obtain and disclose classified US national defence documents.
In return, Assange will walk free and return to his country after years in self-exile.
This expected to take place in a court in the Northern Mariana Islands tomorrow morning.
It is a moment his supporters have been waiting for after 14 years of legal battles, campaigns and diplomatic tensions for him and his family.
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