٠٠:٠٢:١٥Supporters were cheering as WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange gave a kiss to his wife Stella minutes after his arrival at the Canberra airport on Wednesday morning.
Footage shows Assange leaving the airplane and greeting Stella, as well as other people who were there to welcome him, while dozens of his supporters could be heard celebrating his arrival.
Earlier, at the US district courthouse in the Northern Mariana Islands, 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 spent in the UK's Belmarsh prison.
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 Australia and his own opposition to travelling to the United States.
He had been detained in the London prison since 2019, and fought a long-running 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.
Kiss for the missus! Assange embraces wife Stella as plane lands in Canberra
Supporters were cheering as WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange gave a kiss to his wife Stella minutes after his arrival at the Canberra airport on Wednesday morning.
Footage shows Assange leaving the airplane and greeting Stella, as well as other people who were there to welcome him, while dozens of his supporters could be heard celebrating his arrival.
Earlier, at the US district courthouse in the Northern Mariana Islands, 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 spent in the UK's Belmarsh prison.
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 Australia and his own opposition to travelling to the United States.
He had been detained in the London prison since 2019, and fought a long-running 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.
Supporters were cheering as WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange gave a kiss to his wife Stella minutes after his arrival at the Canberra airport on Wednesday morning.
Footage shows Assange leaving the airplane and greeting Stella, as well as other people who were there to welcome him, while dozens of his supporters could be heard celebrating his arrival.
Earlier, at the US district courthouse in the Northern Mariana Islands, 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 spent in the UK's Belmarsh prison.
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 Australia and his own opposition to travelling to the United States.
He had been detained in the London prison since 2019, and fought a long-running 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.