
Papers filed in the USA District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands, another American territory in the Pacific Ocean, revealed yesterday that Julian Assange will plead guilty to one felony charge in exchange for his immediate freedom.
The USA Justice Department has agreed to drop 18 espionage charges against him – instead charging him only with conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defence information. Under the terms of the deal, the journalist Julian Assange will be sentenced to 62 months in prison, but the five years he has already spent incarcerated in HMP Belmarsh in the UK will count against that period. The agreement must be approved by a federal judge before it can take effect, so he may be free soon.