Julian Assange is a free man, arriving in Australia on Wednesday night after pleading guilty to one charge of espionage.
The plea deal with prosecutors brought to end an international saga surrounding war, access to information, freedom of speech and the role of journalism in the digital age.
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Facing a judge in a US federal court in the remote Northern Mariana Islands, Assange told the court he “believes the First Amendment and the Espionage Act are in contradiction” and that he was within his rights while working as a journalist when he “encouraged (his) source to provide information that was said to be classified in order to publish that information”.
Assange landed on Australian soil late on Wednesday afternoon, bringing the long fight to be allowed to return home to an end.
What will his life look like going forward, and how does his family feel now that he’s returned?
Gabriel Shipton, Julian Assange’s brother, joined The Briefing to share how he feels in this historical moment.
“We’ve been campaigning for Julian’s freedom for a very long time. I always had faith that one day Julian would be free,” Gabriel said.
“Everywhere we go everywhere we campaign, we explain to most people, [and] they come over to our Julian side. They realise what’s at stake in terms of their rights.
“I really had faith that eventually we would get to that critical point. What was the political cost of this case where the United States would have to really look at it and think, well, how are we going to get out of this?”