Sarah Ferguson presents Australia's premier daily current affairs program, delivering agenda-setting public affairs journalism and interviews that hold the powerful to account. Plus political analysis from Laura Tingle.
SARAH FERGUSON, PRESENTER: Early this morning, Julian Assange heads to Stansted Airport to catch a private jet out of the UK.
Arrested in 2019 for breaching bail on an unrelated charge, he was sentenced to 50 weeks jail but then kept in detention while he fought an extradition order to the United States. GABRIEL SHIPTON: Yeah, I wasn't expecting there to be footage of him getting on the plane, but it was nice, nice to see him moving around and, yeah, he looked quite spritely going up those stairs.
GABRIEL SHIPTON: I've been chatting to Julian most of this week as he has been preparing to get on this flight and the last little bits and pieces that needed to happen for this all to come together. You've had world leaders all coming out, speaking about Julian, calling for his freedom, such as President Lula, the Mexican President, Amlo, as well as the Prime Minister, who has been calling for his freedom multiple, multiple times to the Biden administration and the Australian public, who have been incredibly supportive of Julian, advocating for him, and as well as the Australian media who have become relentless in covering this case and educating the public about what this actually...
So it's a very nervous time, obviously that we have to get through these last bits and pieces but hopefully he's home soon and, yeah, he's most of the way back now, so I can't really see any hiccups coming but not quite there yet. But yeah, it's getting to that US territory, that US jurisdiction, putting that plea deal before a US judge, having that judge accept that deal and then travelling onward to Australia.
GABRIEL SHIPTON: Yeah, I'm not actually sure whose idea it was, but I think, yeah, it is a good, neat solution to be able to get that plea before a US judge, without setting foot on continental United States, and yeah, it's very close to Australia, and so it's a sort of, it's sort of on the way home, really, on the way home for Julian.
Everyone should just give themselves a pat on the back, because this has been a monumental campaign, and this is its culmination now. So we're so close. So I don't believe the US DoJ really wanted to have an appeal around these freedom of expression grounds being heard in the UK courts, so I think it did contribute to the motivation and the push for this deal at this time.
So I think all these elements have contributed and, of course, the support of the Australian public, I think, we cannot deny that the Australian public has really supported the government in their efforts to bring this to a close.
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