WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange returned to his homeland Australia aboard a charter jet and raised a celebratory clenched fist as his supporters cheered Wednesday after he pleaded guilty to obtaining and publishing US military secrets in a deal with Justice Department prosecutors that concludes a drawn-out legal saga. Assange told Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in a phone call from Canberra's airport tarmac that Australian government intervention in the US prosecution had saved his life, Assange lawyer Jennifer Robinson said. Assange embraced his wife Stella Assange and father John Shipton, who were waiting on the tarmac, but avoided media at a news conference less than two hours after he landed, the AP reports.
"Julian wanted me to sincerely thank everyone. He wanted to be here. But you have to understand what he's been through. He needs time. He needs to recuperate and this is a process." Stella Assange told reporters. Albanese said Assange told him during their phone call he was looking forward to playing with his children, conceived while Assange was in self-exile in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London for seven years. It is unclear where Assange will go from Canberra and what his future plans are. His South African-born lawyer wife, the mother of his two sons, has been in Australia for days awaiting his release. "WikiLeaks' work will continue and Mr. Assange, I have no doubt, will be a continuing force for freedom of speech and transparency in government," one of his lawyers said.
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