L’Pacific island of Saipan will soon host the final act of Julian Assange’s legal odyssey. In fact, tomorrow, Wednesday 26 June, The founder of WikiLeaks will plead guilty to conspiracy charges as part of a plea agreement with the United States and then he will be free to return to Australia. According to what was disclosed, Assange would have asked to appear in a court near Australia, but not in the continental United States. For this reason Saipan has the advantage of being relatively close to Australian territory, being approximately three thousand kilometers south of the country.
The plane with Julian Assange on board landed a short while ago in Bangkok to refuel and will leave today evening 25 June for Saipan, where Assange will have to appear in court on Wednesday morning local time. US prosecutors said Assange he agreed to plead guilty to a single chargeconspiracy, to obtain and disclose classified U.S. national defense documents, in exchange for a sixty-two month sentence already served.
When the judge approves your plea deal after the hearing is over, Assange is expected to head to Australia, this time as a free man. Last month, the WikiLeaks founder won the right to appeal an extradition order to the United States after his lawyers highlighted “clearly inadequate guarantees” provided by Washington on the protection of the rights of the accused.
Where is Saipan
Saipan is the capital of the Northern Mariana Islands, an island area of the United States located in the western Pacific. Similar to territories like Guam or Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands they are part of the United States without having full status: The approximately fifty thousand residents are US citizens but cannot vote in presidential elections. This type of area, as in the case of Saipan, also hosts US district courts.
After being a colony of Spain, Germany and then Japan, the United States they took control of the island during World War II. After decades under US rule, residents voted in 1975 to join the US as a territory, which has a permanent delegate to the House, although he cannot vote.
