How Wikileaks Founder Assange Won Fight to Avoid Prison

Julian Assange arrives at the United States Courthouse in Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands on June 26.Photographer: Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images
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To his supporters, Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assange is a martyr who’s been persecuted for exposing corruption and war crimes. To others, he’s an unscrupulous hacker who put lives in danger by publishing sensitive state secrets.

Now, after an almost 15-year battle to avoid imprisonment in the US, the saga is coming to an end. Assange is set to plead guilty to leaking US national security secrets and return to his home country of Australia, under a deal with the Justice Department in Washington.