STORY: After five years fighting U.S. extradition from a top-security UK jail, Julian Assange appeared to be boarding a plane that WikiLeaks says is flying out of the United Kingdom in footage it released Tuesday.
He's expected to appear in court on the island of Saipan Wednesday evening and plead guilty to violating U.S. espionage law, in exchange for his freedom.
WikiLeaks shared a video of Assange's wife Stella outside London's top security Belmarsh prison.
Julian was kept there since 2019, and she had made many visits over the years to see him.
"This period of our lives I am confident now, has come to an end. And I think this time next week Julian will be free."
Filings in the U.S. District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands say Julian Assange agreed to plead guilty to a single count of conspiring to obtain and disclose classified U.S. national defense documents.
In 2010, WikiLeaks released hundreds of thousands of classified military documents on Washington's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and troves of diplomatic cables.
The court on Saipan is expected to sentence Assange to 62 months of time already served, crediting Assange's time in prison in London.
This would let him avoid being imprisoned in the United States, and be left free to return to Australia after the proceedings.
Assange was indicted during former President Donald Trump's administration over WikiLeaks' mass release of documents.
Julian Assange's supporters have long criticized the use of charges typically levied against federal government employees in Assange's case, and press freedom advocates argue criminally charging Assange is a threat to free speech.
