Australian PM says secretive talks led to Assange deal

Australia's PM reveals undisclosed missions to the U.S. led to Julian Assange's plea deal and freedom.

Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on June 26 a string of recent non-disclosed missions to the United States helped to forge the plea deal that freed Julian Assange.

The 52-year-old WikiLeaks founder landed in Canberra hours earlier, after earning his liberty by pleading guilty to a single count of conspiracy to obtain and disseminate U.S. national defence information.

He was sentenced by a court in the U.S. Pacific territory of Northern Mariana Islands to time already served in London's high-security Belmarsh prison — five years and two months — and allowed to walk free.

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The U.S. Department of Justice had to make a "range of decisions" for the plea deal to proceed, Anthony Albanese told a news conference in Canberra, stressing that the U.S. department was independent and "not subject to political influence".

A "whole range of people" had visited the United States as the deal was worked out, the Australian leader told reporters.

"I am surprised that some of it was missed by the people in this room — some of the visits — but it's not up to me to indicate that," Mr. Albanese said.