Julian Assange has landed back home in his native Australia, after a plea deal allowed him to walk free from a London prison.
There were emotional scenes at Canberra Airport, as the Wikileaks founder kissed his wife and hugged his father, his lawyers watching on, visibly moved.
For the past 14 years, Assange has been in a legal battle with US officials who accused him of leaking classified documents, which they say put lives in danger.
The 52-year-old did not attend the news conference in Canberra, instead letting his lawyer and wife speak for him.
The couple married in London's Belmarsh prison in 2022, and have two children together.
The plea deal saw Julian Assange plead guilty to one charge of conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defence information, rather than the 18 he was originally facing.
The case centred around a massive Wikileaks disclosure in 2010 when the website released a video from a US military helicopter which showed civilians being killed in the Iraqi capital Baghdad. It also published thousands of confidential documents suggesting that the US military had killed hundreds of civilians in unreported incidents during the war in Afghanistan.
The revelations became a huge story, prompting reaction from all corners of the globe, and led to intense scrutiny of American involvement in foreign conflicts.
Assange formally entered the charge on the remote Northern Mariana Islands, an American territory in the Pacific, two days after leaving Belmarsh prison.
In return, he was sentenced to time already served and released to fly home.
His lawyer also gave details on a phone call between Assange and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who has been instrumental in securing his release.
The US State Department said its involvement with Assange's case had been very limited.
In 2010, he faced separate charges of rape and sexual assault in Sweden, which he denied.
He spent seven years hiding in Ecuador's London embassy, claiming the Swedish case would lead him to be sent to the US. Swedish authorities dropped that case in 2019 and said that too much time had passed since the original complaint.
Women's rights groups in Sweden say it is a shame he never faced official questioning over the rape allegations.
This Cyber News was published on www.bbc.com. Publication date: Thu, 27 Jun 2024 01:29:04 +0000