Former fugitive Julian Assange has emerged on the tropical island of Saipan to plead guilty to a single espionage charge with Kevin Rudd by his side, but is facing a huge bill for his freedom flight.
The former prime minister, who is Australia’s ambassador to the United States, made the 12,000 kilometre journey to the tropical Pacific island of Saipan for his role in the final act of Assange’s 14-year legal odyssey.
There, Assange will plead guilty on Wednesday to a single criminal charge in a plea deal that will see him walk free and return home to Australia.
US prosecutors say that Assange wanted to go to plead guilty in a US court close to his home of Australia but not on the United States mainland.
But that decision will cost him dearly, with Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles confirming the Albanese government will not pay for Assange’s transportation costs.
The Free Julian Assange campaign has set up a crowd-funding website to raise $US520,000, ($A782,190) to pay for the private jet flight to Saipan and then home to Australia.
“So to be clear on it, the federal government is not paying for his transport. The costs of that are being covered by the Assange team,” Mr Marles said on Sunrise on Wednesday.
“Obviously, we have facilitated a number of movements here … We are facilitating his travel and we are doing all of the consular assistance that we would provide to any Australian in a circumstance such as this.”
A key player in the negotiations to secure Assange’s freedom was Mr Rudd, the current ambassador in Washington and Stephen Smith, a former Labor minister who arrived in London as the new Australian High Commissioner in early 2023.
But the decision hasn’t pleased everyone, with former US vice president Mike Pence saying the WikiLeaks founder’s plea deal is a miscarriage of justice.
“The Biden administration’s plea deal with Assange is a miscarriage of justice and dishonours the service and sacrifice of the men and women of our armed forces and their families,” he wrote in a post to X.
“There should be no plea deals to avoid prison for anyone that endangers the security of our military or the national security of the United States. Ever.”
Assange’s wife Stella, a lawyer who has worked on the freedom campaign, said she would seek a pardon because the acceptance of guilt on an espionage charge was a “very serious concern” for journalists around the world.
“The fact that there is a guilty plea, under the Espionage Act in relation to obtaining and disclosing national defence information, is obviously a very serious concern for journalists and national security journalists in general,” she said.
Asked if Australia would support Assange seeking a pardon from US President Joe Biden, Defence Minister Richard Marles refused to comment.
“It’s not appropriate for me to start commenting on how the proceedings might occur in the United States. Where we are at is we are expecting him to be in the United States court today and the legal process in the US needs to take its course from there,” he said.