Tue 25 June 2024:
The family of Julian Assange has called for donations as the WikiLeaks founder heads home to Australia. The funds are needed to cover travel costs from the UK to Australia via the Saipan Islands, where Assange is scheduled to attend a US court hearing on Wednesday.
“Julian’s travel to freedom comes at a massive cost: Julian will owe USD 520,000 which he is obligated to pay back to the Australian government for charter Flight VJ199. He was not permitted to fly commercial airlines or routes to Saipan and onward to Australia. Any contribution big or small is much appreciated,” wrote his wife, Stella Assange, on X.
A crowdfunding campaign has raised $61,792 as of the time of publication.
Assange was released from Belmarsh maximum security prison on Monday after being granted bail by the High Court in London. He then boarded a flight at Stansted Airport at 5 p.m. local time.
Court documents indicate that Assange is set to appear at the US District Court in the Mariana Islands, a US commonwealth near Australia, on Wednesday. A judge in Saipan will hear the case at 9 a.m. local time, and sentencing proceedings are expected to conclude within hours.
Assange is expected to plead guilty to a single count of violating the US Espionage Act, specifically conspiring to unlawfully obtain and disclose US national security information.
The plane carrying Assange landed at Don Mueang International Airport in Bangkok on Tuesday to refuel before heading to Saipan.
Assange gained international fame in the 2010s for leaking classified US documents online, revealing sensitive American diplomatic correspondence and military records, including a 2007 US airstrike in Baghdad that killed several people, including two Reuters journalists.
He has long opposed extradition to the US, spending seven years in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London to avoid handover. In 2019, he was ejected from the embassy and has since spent five years in a British prison fighting extradition to the US.
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
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