LONDON: Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has left the UK after agreeing a US plea deal that will see him plead guilty to criminal charges and go free.
Assange was charged with conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defense information.
He spent the last five years in a British prison, from where he was fighting extradition to the US.
Assange will spend no time in US custody and will receive credit for the time spent incarcerated in the UK.
The plea deal is expected to be finalised in a court in the Northern Mariana Islands on Wednesday.
He is expected to return to Australia according to the US justice department.
What is Wikileaks and what has it leaked?
Since it launched in 2006, Wikileaks has been renowned for publishing thousands of classified documents covering everything from the film industry to national security and wars.
In 2010, it published a video from a US military helicopter showing the killing of civilians in Baghdad, Iraq.
It has also published hundreds of thousands of documents leaked by former US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning, who was arrested, imprisoned and later freed.
Documents relating to the war in Afghanistan revealed how the US military had killed hundreds of civilians in unreported incidents.
Further documents from the Iraq war revealed that 66,000 civilians had been killed – more than previously reported. The documents also showed that prisoners had been tortured by Iraqi forces.
The US government has continued to argue that the leaks put people’s lives at risk.
BBC
Comment