Julian Assange is free and back on home soil in Australia after a 14-year battle. It is unknown if he will return to WikiLeaks; his wife Stella Assange says it will take time for him to heal from the ordeal and come to terms with his freedom. The Prime Minister was on the phone with him as soon as he landed.

Canberra

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange walked free from a court on the U.S. Pacific island territory of Saipan after pleading guilty to violating U.S. espionage law in a deal that allowed him to head straight home to Australia.

Julian Assange freed

Julian Assange lands in Australia, speaks to PM

There is a big question mark over where to from here for Julian Assange. His wife Stella has addressed the media this evening and she said today is about a celebration of him arriving home and being a free man and it also will take time for him to heal and come to terms with his freedom. When the plane touched down this evening, Julian Assange walked out, he pumped his fist in the air, there were supporters who had been waiting for him on the other side of the fence. They cheered, he waved to them and then his wife Stella came out and they had a big kiss and a big hug. It was certainly a moment. There have been questions about whether Mr Assange will pursue and continue with Wikileaks, whether he will continue with journalism but it seems that they're not the time to make those decisions at this stage. It is clear that the campaign does not stop here, that the Assanges will continue to push to reforms, to change the laws with a focus on press freedom and eventually they intend to also push to have a pardon which was involved with the deal. Here is the comments from his lawyers and his wife this evening. This is a huge win for free speech. This is a huge win for Australia that our Prime Minister stood up to our ally the United States and demanded the return of an Australian citizen. Julian thanked him and the team and told the Prime Minister that he had saved his life and I don't think that's an exaggeration. Julian has to recover. That's the priority and the fact is that Julian will always defend human rights, will always defend victims. He's always done that and that's just part of who he is. Has the Australian Government done a deal to produce this outcome? I think the Australian Government and especially the Albanese Government over the past two years have been very involved in diplomacy and the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been involved personally and has brought it up one-on-one with the US President Joe Biden and there's been a lot of work behind the scenes and we've heard him say that this has been very careful, patient and considered work over the past two years to reach it. In terms of deals it's really Julian Assange's lawyers and they said over the past three weeks it's moved really quite quickly over the past few weeks to come to this deal but certainly his lawyers have praised Anthony Albanese's work here. They also praised the Australia's Ambassador to the United States Kevin Rudd. He has also been integral to achieving this outcome. So Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has also held a press conference this evening after Julian Assange's plane touchdown. The Government advocated strategically, patiently, in a calibrated way and we achieved this outcome. My role as Prime Minister has been to firmly say that whatever the views that people have, there was no purpose to be served by this ongoing incarceration and can I say that when I spoke with Mr Assange tonight, he described it as a surreal and happy moment, his landing here in our national capital Canberra.

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WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange arrived in Canberra on Wednesday (June 26) after a hearing on the U.S. Pacific island territory of Saipan. He pleaded guilty to violating U.S. espionage law in a deal that allowed him to head straight home to Australia.

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