Julian Assange: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese wants WikiLeaks founder ‘home’ as legal saga nears end

The Federal Government is cautiously welcoming reports of Julian Assange’s looming return to Australia, as the WikiLeaks founder prepares to strike a plea deal with the US Government to end his 14-year legal saga.

Mr Assange is scheduled to appear in court in a tiny US territory on Wednesday morning (local time) where he is expected to plead guilty to one charge of conspiring to obtain and disclose national defence secrets.

The charges relate to WikiLeak’s publication of thousands of military records and diplomatic cables about the US’ involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan in the 2000s.

The plea deal – which WikiLeaks said was still being finalised – will clear the path for Mr Assange’s long-awaited return to Australia.

Mr Assange flew to the Northern Mariana Islands, a tiny US territory in the Pacific Ocean, on Monday night (UK time) after being released from the maximum-security UK prison where he has spent almost 2000 days.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese described the scheduled court hearing as a “welcome development” but did not want to comment further given the proceedings were at a “crucial” and “delicate” point.

Mr Albanese reiterated his long-held position that regardless of the differing views about Mr Assange’s conduct, his case had dragged on for too long and there was nothing to be gained from keeping him locked up.

“We want him brought home to Australia,” he said.

“We have engaged and advocated Australia’s interests using all appropriate channels to support a positive outcome.

“I will have more to say when these legal proceedings have concluded, which I hope will be very soon.”

In a major development in the long-running saga, WikiLeaks posted a video just on Tuesday morning of a casually dressed Mr Assange boarding a plane at London’s Stanstead airport.

“Julian Assange is free,” WikiLeaks posted to X, formerly Twitter.

“We thank all who stood by us, fought for us, and remained utterly committed in the fight for his freedom. Julian’s freedom is our freedom.”

Mr Albanese told Labor caucus the Government had been working closely with Australia’s ambassadors to the US and UK, Kevin Rudd and Stephen Smith, Mr Assange’s lawyers and the US administration to bring an end to the saga.

He referenced the Government’s recent diplomatic efforts to secure the return of two other high-profile Australians detained overseas - journalist Cheng Lei and academic Sean Turnell.

Mr Albanese has been publicly and privately lobbying the US, including President Joe Biden, to resolve the situation.

Mr Assange’s plight has made him a hero among press freedom advocates who believe the WikiLeaks founder shouldn’t face prosecution for exposing war secrets.

A motley crew of federal politicians – ranging from teal independents to former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce – have taken up Mr Assange’s cause, travelling to the US to directly lobby lawmakers in Washington.

“There were so many people who were part of this process, and what it showed was people from both sides of politics, for different reasons, arrived at the same place,” Mr Joyce said on Tuesday morning.

Mr Joyce said while he believed Mr Assange’s actions were wrong, they were not illegal.

“That’s the big issue here.,” he said.

Fremantle MP Josh Wilson - who co-chairs the Bring Julian Assange Home parliamentary group that travelled to Washington last September - said the development was “enormously heartening”.

“We know it will be welcomed by the hundreds of thousands of Australians who have spoken-up and spoken-out from a position of principled concern for Julian Assange,” Mr Wilson said.

Greens justice spokesman David Shoebridge said Mr Assange’s release would not have happened without sustained public pressure.

“To Julian who told the truth and did it knowing he would face a global attack, we are immensely grateful,” he said.

“Let’s be clear, Julian Assange should never have been charged with espionage in the first place or had to make this deal.”

Mr Assange was charged in 2019 in relation to the publication of troves of secret documents leaked by Chelsea Manning, a former US intelligence analysts.

Assange was first arrested in Britain in 2010 on a European arrest warrant after Swedish authorities said they wanted to question him over sex-crime allegations that were later dropped.

He fled to Ecuador’s embassy, where he remained for seven years, to avoid extradition to Sweden.

He was dragged out of the embassy in 2019 and jailed for skipping bail.

He has been in London’s Belmarsh top security jail ever since, from where he has for almost five years been fighting extradition to the US.

While in Belmarsh he married his partner Stella with whom he had two children while he was holed up in the Ecuadorean embassy.