WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange He returned silently to his native Australia this Wednesday after agreeing to his freedom with the American justice system. 14 years after the largest leak of classified US documents, while his wife has asked “time” so that “I can speak again“.

Assange landed at Canberra International Airport on a charter flight around 7:40 p.m. local time (09:40 GMT), after a long trip that began on Monday in London and that led him to make a technical stop in Bangkok on Tuesday before appearing. this Wednesday in the Northern Mariana Islands as part of the pact with the United States.

The activist, 52 years oldleft the private jet – the same one in which the singer Taylor Swift traveled to the Super Bowl in February – dressed in a dark suit, with a white shirt and tie, and with his fist raised, he greeted dozens of media with gestures. and followers who waited and cheered for him.

“I am very happy, but this should have happened many years ago,” Chilean Ana Hurtado, who was waiting outside the airport for Assange’s arrival with three friends, told EFE. On the runway, she embraced her wifeStella Assange, and her father, John Shipton, But far from the more confident image that he gave off at the beginning as head of WikiLeaks, Assange kept a low profile and refused to testify during the press conference that had been scheduled after his arrival.

His wife appeared in his place

“Julian wanted to be here today, but he asked me to do it (…) “He needs time, he needs to recover,” his wife stated in a small room at the East Hotel in Canberra, in front of more than a hundred journalists who were waiting for her husband. “I ask you to please give us the space and privacy to find our place so that our family can be a family before he can speak again when he chooses,” Assange’s wife implored.

Stella, of Spanish-Swedish nationality, added that this had to “get used to freedom again“. Both met during Julian Assange’s stay at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London (2012-2019), a period in which they had their two children, while the Australian spent the last five years in a British prison.

Assange’s freedom was possible after an agreement with the US Department of Justice that was formalized this Wednesday, during a hearing in a court in Saipan, in the Northern Mariana Islands (US territory), in which he pleaded guilty to violating the US Espionage Act as part of the pact. “Today we celebrate Julian’s freedom (…) But I think it is also the day in which we hope that journalists from all over the world realize the danger that this case generates“His wife emphasized at the press conference.

Along the same lines, Julian Assange’s lawyer, Jennifer Robinson, stressed during the conference that “unfortunately“The Australian activist had to plead guilty to “recover his freedom.” Activist, proclaimed journalist and computer programmer, Assange’s entourage and his defenders see in Assange a champion of the universal battle for freedom of expression, while his detractors came to consider him the “number one enemy” of the United States due to the implications of his leaks.

The history of WikiLeaks

WikiLeaks became world famous in 2010 after leaking hundreds of thousands of documents secrets or sensitive content that revealed secrets in the United States of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as on the Guantanamo base. Initially detained in 2010 at the request of Sweden for a case of abuses now filed, Assange was in the middle of a complex extradition process to the United States, where he had been accused of 18 crimes that carried a possible sentence of 170 years in prison.

“He should not have spent a single day in prison“, his wife proclaimed this Wednesday. For his part, the Prime Minister of Australia, Anthony Albanese, who interceded for Assange’s return to the country, was pleased that “the saga is over” and stressed that it is the culmination of “careful, patient and determined work”.

Albanese was in fact the first to call Assange by phone upon landing in Canberra, as revealed today by his lawyer, who reported that the activist told the president: “You saved my life.” “I don’t think that’s an exaggeration,” the lawyer has highlighted.