Plane with Julian Assange on board lands in Bangkok

Published:

Jun 25, 2024 05:37 GMT

It is a technical stopover to refuel before flying to the Northern Mariana Islands, a US territory in the Pacific, where the trial in the case of the founder of WikiLeaks will take place.

A plane carrying WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange landed in Bangkok, Thailand, on Tuesday.

According to reports, it is a technical stopover to refuel before flying to the Northern Mariana Islands, a US territory in the Pacific, where the trial in the case of the founder of WikiLeaks will take place.

Technical scale

“The flight will land around 11:50 am (04:50 GMT) from London. It is expected to refuel and water before departing at 9:00 pm for Saipan island,” a Thai official was quoted as saying. AFP.

After being released from a maximum security prison in the United Kingdom, Assange will be brought to US soil to face a judge as part of a plea deal that is expected to free him to return to Australia.

The Australian journalist agreed to plead guilty to a single count of conspiracy to obtain and disseminate national defense information, according to a document filed in a court in the Northern Mariana Islands cited by the agency.

The hearing will be held Wednesday in Saipan, the largest island in the Northern Marianas, because of Assange’s opposition to traveling to the mainland United States and the court’s proximity to Australia, prosecutors said.

• Assange left the Belmarsh maximum security prison, in the British capital, this Monday morning after 1,901 days of confinement. The High Court in London released the journalist on bail, after which the Australian left the United Kingdom.
• The journalist was imprisoned in Belmarsh in 2019, after the then president of Ecuador, Lenín Moreno, allowed his arrest at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where the journalist had remained in asylum status for seven years, since June 2012.
• In June 2022, the United Kingdom approved Assange’s extradition to the United States. In May the British Supreme Court ruled that Assange had the right to appeal his extradition to the United States.