KUALA LUMPUR – The plane carrying WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the Northern Mariana Islands after his release from UK prison will make a pitstop in Bangkok for refuelling.
A Thai official told AFP that the aircraft will land at 11.50am (12.50pm Malaysian time) from London to refuel and replenish its water supply before departing for Saipan Island at 9pm local time.
Assange will be brought before a judge on the tiny Pacific islands, which are US territory, after he took a plea deal where the 52-year-old admitted guilty to one count of “conspiracy to obtain and disseminate national defence information”.
After the proceedings, he is expected to return to his home country of Australia. In response to his case, the Australian government said it had “dragged on for too long” and there was “nothing to be gained by his continued incarceration”.
Assange is scheduled to appear in court tomorrow morning.
The plea deal will see him sentenced to 62 months in prison – bringing an end to the years-long legal troubles he faced – but offset by the over five years he spent on remand in the United Kingdom.
He has been in a high-security jail in London since 2019, while the United States attempted to have him extradited to face charges under the 1917 Espionage Act.
Assange was accused of publishing some 700,000 confidential documents related to US military and diplomatic activities since 2010.
Prior to jail, he avoided the authorities by seeking refuge at the Ecuadorean embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden on sexual assault charges. These charges were later dropped. – June 25, 2024