01:25A plane carrying WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to Canberra in Australia was seen taking off from Saipan Airport in the Northern Mariana Islands on Wednesday.
It following a landmark plea deal hearing between Assange and US authorities at the district courthouse, to end the long-running extradition row.
Assange entered a 'guilty' plea to a single charge of espionage. While the offence carried up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, Judge Ramona Manglona accepted the plea agreement and imposed a sentence of time served, amounting to the 62 months he had already spent in the UK's Belmarsh prison.
According to media reports, she also wished Assange a 'happy early birthday' and said he was a 'free man'. The US side confirmed that it was withdrawing the UK extradition request.
The WikiLeaks founder left Belmarsh on Monday evening after reaching the plea deal, boarding a plane at London's Stansted Airport.
The hearing's location in Saipan - the largest of the Northern Mariana Islands, a US commonwealth - was reportedly due to its proximity to his home country of Australia and his own opposition to travelling to the United States.
He had been detained in the London prison since 2019, and fought an extradition battle with the US over 18 charges related to the release of classified documents involving the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
He was initially granted political asylum by Ecuador in the British capital in 2012 but was dragged from the embassy by UK police seven years later.
Assange flies home! Plane with WikiLeaks founder on board takes off for Canberra
A plane carrying WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to Canberra in Australia was seen taking off from Saipan Airport in the Northern Mariana Islands on Wednesday.
It following a landmark plea deal hearing between Assange and US authorities at the district courthouse, to end the long-running extradition row.
Assange entered a 'guilty' plea to a single charge of espionage. While the offence carried up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, Judge Ramona Manglona accepted the plea agreement and imposed a sentence of time served, amounting to the 62 months he had already spent in the UK's Belmarsh prison.
According to media reports, she also wished Assange a 'happy early birthday' and said he was a 'free man'. The US side confirmed that it was withdrawing the UK extradition request.
The WikiLeaks founder left Belmarsh on Monday evening after reaching the plea deal, boarding a plane at London's Stansted Airport.
The hearing's location in Saipan - the largest of the Northern Mariana Islands, a US commonwealth - was reportedly due to its proximity to his home country of Australia and his own opposition to travelling to the United States.
He had been detained in the London prison since 2019, and fought an extradition battle with the US over 18 charges related to the release of classified documents involving the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
He was initially granted political asylum by Ecuador in the British capital in 2012 but was dragged from the embassy by UK police seven years later.
A plane carrying WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to Canberra in Australia was seen taking off from Saipan Airport in the Northern Mariana Islands on Wednesday.
It following a landmark plea deal hearing between Assange and US authorities at the district courthouse, to end the long-running extradition row.
Assange entered a 'guilty' plea to a single charge of espionage. While the offence carried up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, Judge Ramona Manglona accepted the plea agreement and imposed a sentence of time served, amounting to the 62 months he had already spent in the UK's Belmarsh prison.
According to media reports, she also wished Assange a 'happy early birthday' and said he was a 'free man'. The US side confirmed that it was withdrawing the UK extradition request.
The WikiLeaks founder left Belmarsh on Monday evening after reaching the plea deal, boarding a plane at London's Stansted Airport.
The hearing's location in Saipan - the largest of the Northern Mariana Islands, a US commonwealth - was reportedly due to its proximity to his home country of Australia and his own opposition to travelling to the United States.
He had been detained in the London prison since 2019, and fought an extradition battle with the US over 18 charges related to the release of classified documents involving the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
He was initially granted political asylum by Ecuador in the British capital in 2012 but was dragged from the embassy by UK police seven years later.