Assange flies out after prison release

Wife's elation’ as Wikileaks founder heads to Australia in US plea deal

- Martin Bentham

JULIAN ASSANGE was today heading home to Australia after a dramatic plea deal with US prosecutors that allowed him to leave his London prison cell.

The Wikileaks founder, 52, had been in the capital’s Belmarsh prison for five years fighting extradition to America over the release of a mass of confidential national security information.

He had feared a potential life sentence in the US — and at one point even the death penalty — over the allegations, which included claims that his data dump via the Wikileaks site had put lives at risk as well as revealing details about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A plea bargain deal announced overnight paved the way for an end to his long and controversial stay in Britain, which also included seven years holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy from 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden over rape and sex offence allegations.