司法部已经和朱利安·阿桑奇周一晚间公布的法庭文件显示，维基解密(WikiLeaks)创始人承认共谋非法获取和传播机密信息的一项重罪，预计该交易将解决这位创始人在美国受到的指控，不会再入狱服刑。
这项协议预计将有效地结束美国因阿桑奇公布前美国士兵切尔西·曼宁在2010年泄露的机密军事和外交材料而起诉阿桑奇的长达一年的法律斗争，其中包括一些显示美国军队在伊拉克可能犯下战争罪的材料。
根据美国检察官发布的一封信，阿桑奇将在北马里亚纳群岛的美国联邦法院认罪，预计随后将返回澳大利亚，这表明检察官不会要求法官在他为反对引渡而在伦敦贝尔马什监狱服刑五年的刑期之后对他判刑。
认罪协议将解决联邦检察官根据《反间谍法》对阿桑奇的指控，该指控涉及维基解密公布泄露的外交和军事文件，该文件因其对媒体自由的潜在影响而受到第一修正案倡导者的批评，以及阿桑奇在英国的持续拘留，该拘留受到人权组织的广泛谴责。
这项协议应该意味着阿桑奇在经历了十多年的某种形式的监禁后，将最终获得自由，同时寻求避免被美国起诉。
在过去的五年里，阿桑奇一直被关押在伦敦的贝尔马什监狱，这是英国最安全的监狱之一，他一直在与美国的引渡努力抗争。
在此之前，阿桑奇在厄瓜多尔驻伦敦大使馆内度过了七年，他于2011年逃离那里，以避免在瑞典受到潜在的性侵犯指控。阿桑奇获得了厄瓜多尔政府的庇护，允许他住在大使馆大楼里，而英国警方在外面设置了永久的岗哨。
但在2019年，厄瓜多尔政府驱逐了阿桑奇，英国警方在大使馆台阶上逮捕了他。尽管当时瑞典检察官已经撤销了性侵犯案件，但一家英国法院判定阿桑奇违反了保释条件，并判处他50周监禁。尽管他服刑已久，但此后一直被关押在贝尔马什。
他在伦敦被捕后，美国检察官迅速公布了一份密封的起诉书，指控阿桑奇阴谋侵入五角大楼的一个机密计算机网络，并寻求将其引渡。几周后，特朗普政府下的司法部宣布了第二份替代起诉书，指控阿桑奇违反《反间谍法》的另外17项罪名。
根据《反间谍法》起诉阿桑奇的决定遭到了新闻自由团体和美国主要媒体机构的严厉批评，他们担心这可能会开创一个先例，将任何发布机密信息的媒体机构定为刑事犯罪。包括《纽约时报》在内的主要新闻机构曾敦促拜登政府放弃此案。
但拜登政府继续追究《反间谍法》的指控，经过多年的法律挑战，阿桑奇似乎在犹豫更接近引渡在过去的一年里。但今年5月，英国高等法院裁定阿桑奇有理由再次对英国政府引渡他的努力提出上诉，这再次延长了这场法律战。
在法庭斗争中，乔·拜登总统今年早些时候公开表示，他正在“考虑”澳大利亚提出的结束对阿桑奇起诉的请求。
一场释放阿桑奇的国际运动已经进行了多年，有名人和新闻自由倡导者参加。2019年，联合国酷刑问题特别报告员批评英国当局对阿桑奇的处理，称对他的案件的处理令人怀疑英国对人权的承诺，他在贝尔马什的待遇相当于“心理折磨”。
阿桑奇的妻子斯特拉·阿桑奇一直在帮助领导释放他的运动。斯特拉与阿桑奇有两个年幼的儿子，她曾说，如果他被引渡到美国，她担心她的丈夫。
去年夏天探访阿桑奇后，斯特拉在贝尔马什监狱外接受美国广播公司新闻采访时说，“如果他被带到美国，我可以感觉到他永远不会回家了。”
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange expected to plead guilty, avoid further prison time as part of deal with US
The Justice Department has reached an agreement withJulian Assangeto plead guilty to a single felony count of conspiring to unlawfully obtain and disseminate classified information, in a deal that is expected to resolve the WikiLeaks founder's charges in the U.S. with no further time in prison, according to court documents unsealed Monday evening.
The deal is expected to effectively bring to an end to a yearslong legal battle by the U.S. to prosecute Assange over the publishing of classified military and diplomatic materials that were leaked by former American soldier Chelsea Manning in 2010, including some that showed possible war crimes committed by American forces in Iraq.
According to a letter posted by U.S. prosecutors, Assange will plead guilty in U.S. federal court in the Northern Mariana Islands and is expected to return afterward to Australia, indicating prosecutors will not be requesting a judge sentence him beyond the term of time served for the five years he has spent in London's Belmarsh prison fighting extradition.
The plea deal would resolve charges federal prosecutors brought against Assange under the Espionage Act over WikiLeaks' publication of the leaked diplomatic and military documents that has come under criticism by First Amendment advocates over its potential implications for media freedom, as well as Assange's ongoing detention in the U.K. which has been widely condemned by human rights organizations.
The deal should mean that Assange will finally walk free after spending more than a decade in some form of confinement while seeking to avoid prosecution by the U.S.
For the past five years, Assange has been imprisoned in London's Belmarsh prison, one of the U.K.'s most secure jails, while he fought a U.S. extradition effort.
Before that, Assange spent seven years confined inside Ecuador's embassy in London, where he fled in 2011 to avoid potential sexual assault charges brought in Sweden. Assange was granted asylum by Ecuador's government, which permitted him to live in the embassy building while British police mounted a permanent watch outside.
But in 2019, Ecuador's government evicted Assange, and British police arrested him on the embassy steps. Although by then, Swedish prosecutors had dropped the sexual assault case, a U.K. court convicted Assange of breaching his bail conditions and sentenced him to 50 weeks in prison. Despite long since serving that sentence, he has remained held in Belmarsh ever since.
After his arrest in London, U.S. prosecutors swiftly revealed a sealed indictment charging Assange with conspiring to hack into a classified Pentagon computer network and sought his extradition. Weeks later, the Justice Department under the Trump administration then announced a second superseding indictment charging Assange with 17 additional counts of violating the Espionage Act.
That decision to prosecute Assange under the Espionage Act prompted heavy criticism from press freedom groups as well as major U.S. media organizations, which feared it risked setting a precedent that could criminalize any media outlet publishing classified information. Leading news organizations, including the New York Times, had urged the Biden administration to drop the case.
But the Biden administration continued to pursue the Espionage Act charges and after years of legal challenges, Assange appeared to be inchingcloser to extraditionin the past year. But in May, Britain's High Court ruled Assange had grounds to again appeal against the U.K. government's effort to extradite him, once more prolonging the legal battle.
Amid the court fight, President Joe Biden earlier this year said publicly he was "considering" a request from Australia to end the prosecution against Assange.
An international campaign to free Assange has been ongoing for years, joined by celebrities and press freedom advocates. In 2019, a UN Special Rapporteur on torture criticized Assange's treatment by U.K. authorities, saying the handling of his case put in doubt Britain's commitment to human rights and that his treatment in Belmarsh amounted to "psychological torture."
Assange's wife, Stella Assange, has been helping lead the campaign to free him. Stella, who has two young sons with Assange, had said she feared for her husband if he was extradited to the U.S.
Speaking to ABC News outside Belmarsh prison last summer after visiting Assange, Stella said, "If he’s taken to the U.S., I can feel it that he will never come home."
