WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will plead guilty in the espionage case brought against him by the United States. In exchange, he would likely be allowed to return to his native Australia. This is evidenced by court documents seen by news agencies Reuters and Associated Press, among others. The agreement has yet to be formally ratified.

Assange is expected to be sentenced to five years in prison, which he has already served in a high-security British prison while fighting to avoid extradition to the United States. If the deal is approved, he will likely be released immediately.

According to WikiLeaks, the site’s founder left his prison in the United Kingdom yesterday morning and boarded a plane at London’s Stansted Airport. He did not say where he was going. However, according to court documents, Assange will appear on Wednesday in court in a remote US territory: the Northern Mariana Islands. This archipelago is located in the Pacific Ocean, about a five-hour flight from Australia.

Footage shows Assange boarding a plane in England without handcuffs:

Assange faces a 175-year prison sentence in the United States. In 2010, the Australian platform published a video of American helicopter pilots in Iraq shooting down unarmed civilians. The platform also published the contents of hundreds of thousands of secret official letters from American diplomatic missions around the world.

Assange was held in Belmarsh high security prison in London for nearly five years. Before that, he hid in the Ecuadorian embassy in London for seven years. When Ecuador revoked Assange’s asylum status in 2019, British police arrested him.

Stella Assange, Julian Assange’s wife, who has been fighting for his release for years, said in a statement, perhaps yesterday Recorded video The period of her visit to Assange in prison “is now drawing to a close.” “I think Julian will be free by this time next week.” WikiLeaks representative Kristin Hrafnsson also says in the same video that she is optimistic and “things are moving very quickly now.”

Australia has been trying to persuade the United States to drop the case against Assange for some time. In April, US President Biden announced that he was considering withdrawing the case against Assange. At the end of March, the British court ruled that Assange could not be extradited to the United States as long as the United States did not provide good guarantees regarding Assange’s treatment.

The Australian government said in a brief statement that it was “aware of planning legal action against Mr. Julian Assange in the United States.”

“As these proceedings are ongoing, it is not appropriate to comment further.” The government also says Prime Minister Albanese has always been clear. “Mr. Assange’s case has dragged on for too long, and there is nothing to be gained by his continued imprisonment.”