Wikileaks founder Julian Assange walks to the plane at Stansted airport in London, the UK, June 24, 2024. (Photo: AFP)

According to documents from the US Northern District Court of the Mariana Islands released on Monday, the 52-year-old Assange has agreed to plead guilty to the criminal charge of conspiring to obtain and disclose confidential documents related to US defense. He is expected to receive a 62-month prison sentence in the trial scheduled on Saipan Island on Wednesday.

The five years that Assange spent in prison in the UK will count as time served, so he is likely to return to Australia once the trial concludes. In its latest announcement, WikiLeaks confirmed that Assange has been released from British prison.

In 2010, WikiLeaks sent shockwaves around the world by publishing hundreds of thousands of secret US military documents concerning the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, marking one of the most significant security breaches in US military history. In addition to military records, WikiLeaks exposed a series of sensitive diplomatic cables. Assange faced prosecution during the tenure of former President Donald Trump.