After years of legal battles, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange left the UK following a deal with US authorities that allowed him to plead guilty to criminal charges and secure his freedom.

WikiLeaks announced on X that Assange left the prison on Monday after 1,901 days in a small cell.

JULIAN ASSANGE IS FREE

Julian Assange is free. He left Belmarsh maximum security prison on the morning of 24 June, after having spent 1901 days there. He was granted bail by the High Court in London and was released at Stansted airport during the afternoon, where he boarded a…

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) June 24, 2024

Assange, 52, had spent the last five years in Belmarsh Prison, fighting extradition to the US.

He faced charges of conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defense information, with the US government arguing that the WikiLeaks files endangered lives by revealing sensitive details about the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

However, the WikiLeaks founder will not serve additional time in US custody and will receive credit for the time he spent incarcerated in the UK, according to CBS.

The agreement requires Assange to plead guilty to one charge under the Espionage Act, which is expected to be finalized in a court in the Northern Mariana Islands on June 26. The remote Pacific islands, a US commonwealth, are closer to Australia than the US mainland.

Now, Assange is set to return to Australia, as confirmed in a letter from the US Department of Justice.

Assange’s legal troubles began when he sought refuge in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London for seven years to avoid extradition to Sweden over separate rape and sexual assault allegations, which he denied. Although Swedish authorities dropped the case in 2019 due to the passage of time, UK authorities arrested Assange for failing to surrender to the courts.

Stella Assange, Julian’s wife, expressed gratitude on X to the supporters who mobilized for his release. She described the days leading up to the deal as “touch-and-go” and “non-stop,” expressing a whirlwind of emotions.

Julian is free!!!!

Words cannot express our immense gratitude to YOU- yes YOU, who have all mobilised for years and years to make this come true. THANK YOU. tHANK YOU. THANK YOU.

Follow @WikiLeaks for more info soon…pic.twitter.com/gW4UWCKP44

— Stella Assange #FreeAssangeNOW (@Stella_Assange) June 25, 2024

Stella Assange limited her comments on the deal to avoid jeopardizing it, emphasizing that the key aspect was the provision for time served, allowing Assange to walk free.

She mentioned that their family, including their two children, is currently in Australia and has not been fully informed about Assange's release to prevent premature revelations.

An Australian government spokesperson told Agence France-Presse that the case had "dragged on for too long."

Assange and his legal team have consistently argued that the charges against him were politically motivated.

In April, US President Joe Biden considered a request from Australia to drop the prosecution, and in May, the UK High Court ruled that Assange could appeal his extradition to the US, challenging the conditions of his prospective trial and potential free speech infringements.

US prosecutors initially sought to try Assange on 18 counts under the Espionage Act for publishing classified US military and diplomatic documents related to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.

WikiLeaks, founded by Assange in 2006, claims to have published over 10 million documents, including a 2010 video showing a US military helicopter killing more than a dozen Iraqi civilians and two Reuters journalists in Baghdad.