Julian Assange ‘marvelling’ at freedom in Australia
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is “marvelling at the horizon” as he tastes freedom in Australia after a five-year stretch in a London high-security prison, his wife said Thursday.
The 52-year-old landed in Canberra the night before, hours after pleading guilty in a US Pacific island court to revealing military secrets and being sentenced to time already served.
The deal let him walk free after a 14-year legal struggle with the US Department of Justice.
“He’s overjoyed to be back home. He’s just marvelling at the horizon,” Stella Assange told Australia’s public broadcaster ABC.
Assange spent more than five years in London’s Belmarsh prison after being dragged out of Ecuador’s London embassy where he lived for seven years to escape extradition to Sweden over sexual assault charges that were eventually dropped.
The couple have not had time to discuss how their lives will play out since his release, said Stella, who met Assange while he was still in the Ecuadorian embassy and married him in the London prison.
“That’s why we have asked for privacy and space and time to figure things out,” she said.
“I packed the bags and got on a plane and got here to receive Julian. And what happens next? Well, hopefully rest, recovery and a period of calm.”