Julian Assange, the Australian native who leaked US national security secrets in 2010, has been banned from returning to the United States unless granted permission, according to the justice department.
![](https://thenigerialawyer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/2026-Summer-IDRI-Masterclass.jpg")
Assange was freed in a US territory and boarded a plane for Canberra after pleading guilty in the Northern Mariana Islands, a remote US territory in the Pacific.
The plea deal between Assange and American prosecutors had been progressing for months, despite the case spanning three US administrations. The Department of Justice stated in a letter to the chief judge of the District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands that Assange had an “opposition to traveling to the continental United States” and that the Pacific territory is close to his home country of Australia, “to which we expect he will return at the conclusion of proceedings.”
Assange pleaded guilty to “conspiring to unlawfully obtain and disseminate classified information relating to the national defense of the United States” and was sentenced to five years and two months in prison, with credit for time already served in Britain.
The election of Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in 2022, who prioritized Assange’s release, coincided with Australia’s growing significance as a US ally in the Pacific. The plea agreement gained momentum earlier this year when Albanese publicly stated that “this thing cannot just go on and on indefinitely.”
By March, British prosecutors had been informed of a potential plea deal between Assange and the US government.
The agreement settles a case that has persisted through three US presidential administrations and raised concerns about free speech, even though many journalists question Assange’s ethics. The material he released through WikiLeaks included a video showing civilians being killed by fire from a US helicopter gunship in Iraq in 2007, which included a photographer and a driver from Reuters. However, critics argue that the massive disclosures, including unredacted information, compromised US security and intelligence sources.
Assange left the US court in Saipan after his plea was accepted, without making a statement to the press, and left for Canberra, ending years of legal drama.
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