Assange's plane costs him half a million dollars.. Why?
After he was released and became free, Julian Assange, the founder of the famous WikiLeaks website, left Britain, where he had been imprisoned for five years in a maximum security prison, shortly after the American judiciary announced that he had concluded an agreement with the Australian citizen to admit his guilt in exchange for his release.
Assange, 52 years old, traveled through London's Stansted Airport, leaving the British Belmarsh prison, and boarded a plane to take him at a very high cost.
Assange's release
His wife announced that the flight from London to Saipan Island, located in the Northern Mariana Islands in the Pacific Ocean, where a court session will be held tomorrow, Wednesday, will cost him $520,000.
The reason is due to Assange's opposition, whose prosecution and persecution lasted for about 14 years, to travel to the mainland United States and the proximity of the island to his homeland, Australia.
His wife Stella has appealed to supporters of the controversial man, in a tweet on her X account on Tuesday, to donate to him to cover the exorbitant expenses he has become indebted to the Australian state.
Assange owes Australia
She wrote: "Julian owes $520,000 to the Australian government for charter flight VJ199, which he is obligated to pay."
She also explained that "he was not allowed to travel on commercial airlines or routes to Saipan and from there to Australia."
She also shared the link to the fundraising site, stressing that her husband's journey to freedom came at a very high price.
Assange pleads guilty
A hearing is scheduled to be held in a US federal court on Wednesday morning on the remote island of Saipan, where the founder of the WikiLeaks website will plead guilty to violating the US espionage law, according to the agreement that ended his imprisonment in Britain and allowed him to return to his homeland, Australia, ending a legal saga that lasted 14 years. Assange has agreed to plead guilty to one felony count of conspiring to obtain and publish classified US national defense documents, according to filings filed in the US District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands.
URGENT: Emergency appeal for donations to cover massive USD 520,000 debt for jet.
— Stella Assange #FreeAssangeNOW (@Stella_Assange) June 25, 2024
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… pic.twitter.com/J6sTbXij53
He is due to be sentenced to 62 months in prison, which he has already served in Britain, freeing him.
Prosecutors say the Pacific island was chosen because the white-haired man in his 50s was reluctant to travel to the United States.
A video posted on WikiLeaks’ X platform showed Assange, wearing a blue T-shirt and jeans, signing a document before boarding a private jet bearing the markings of VistaJet, a charter company.
Australia behind Assange’s release
The Australian government, led by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, has pushed for its citizen’s release but has declined to comment on the legal proceedings while they are ongoing.
It is noteworthy that in 2010, WikiLeaks published hundreds of thousands of secret US military documents about Washington's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, in the largest security breach of its kind in US military history, along with groups of diplomatic cables.
Arriving in Bangkok #AssangeJet pic.twitter.com/K3tCn0Zyzk
This prompted the US administration to demand that Britain extradite him for trial, but the man sought refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London for fear of being deported.
However, British police arrested him again in April 2019 for failing to surrender himself to court, where he has been imprisoned since then.
