Julian Assange: Stella Assange says WikiLeaks founder needs time to ‘let our family be a family’ before speaking publicly – as it happened

• Julian Assange has arrived in Canberra, after being released from prison in the UK on Monday, and then pleading guilty to violating US espionage law at a court in the US Pacific island territory of Saipan on Wednesday morning. The deal left him free to return home to Australia and brought an end to an extraordinary 14-year legal saga

• Assange and the US government agreed he would admit guilt to one criminal count of conspiring to obtain and disclose classified US national defence documents. He was sentenced to time served, with no supervisory period or financial penalty, due to time already served in Belmarsh prison in London. He flew out of Saipan

• Speaking to reporters outside the Saipan court, his lawyers called the prosecution “unprecedented” and an assault on free speech, but said it was time the fight came to an end. Assange spent five years in the high-security jail and seven years at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, battling extradition to the US, where he faced 18 criminal charges

• Assange needs time to recover after his 14-year legal saga, his wife, Stella, said, following his arrival back in Australia. “Julian needs time to recover. To get used to freedoms. Someone told me yesterday who had been through something similar, that freedom comes slowly,” she said in front of a packed room of reporters. “And I want Julian to have that space to rediscover freedom, slowly. And quickly”

• Assange’s lawyer Barry Pollack thanked the former Australia prime minister, Kevin Rudd, who now serves as the Australian ambassador to the US, along with the serving prime minister, Anthony Albanese. Robinson said she had become “very emotional” upon landing in Australia, and that Albanese had been the first to speak with Assange over the phone

• Albanese had taken up the issue with the US president, Joe Biden. “This is what standing up for Australians around the world looks like,” Albanese said

• Stella Assange asked supporters for help covering the “massive USD 520,000 debt” to the Australian government for the chartered flight as he was not allowed to fly on commercial airlines to Saipan and onward to Australia

Here is reminder of Stella Assange speaking to the media earlier today after her husband arrived in Australia.

Julian Assange’s UK solicitor Gareth Peirce has said the case had “exposed major fault lines” in human rights protections in both the US and UK, PA Media reports.

In a statement, she said:

Watching with relief Julian Assange’s safe return to Australia, sincerely hoping the harshness and the scars of the past 12 years will gradually fade for him, understanding of the whole history of his case should not.

It has exposed major fault lines – not just within the UK/US extradition process itself, but in respect of human rights protections in both countries previously believed to be absolute.

The responsibility for addressing their manifestation in one extraordinary experience demands a continued commitment even though the legal case, happily, has now ended.

Our picture desk have put together a gallery of some of the images of Julian Assange’s return to Australia, which you can find here …

On social media the official WikiLeaks account has been emphasising Stella Assange’s message that her husband needs time to rest and recuperate, but remains committed to campaigning on human rights issues. It quotes her saying earlier:

Julian has to recover – that’s the priority. Julian will always defend human rights. He will always defend victims. He’s always done that. And that’s just part of who he is. He’s deeply principled. And he remains deeply principled. And unafraid.

Here are some of the pictures of Julian Assange’s arrival in Australia as a free man.

If you’re just joining us, here’s what has just happened:

• Julian Assange has landed in Australia. Assange punched the air, held his fist up and kissed his wife Stella Assange as he made his way across the tarmac.

• Shortly after Assange’s arrival, the PM addressed the media from Parliament House, saying he had spoken to Assange on the phone and welcomed him back to Australia.

• Supporters gathered at the East Hotel in Canberra, where Stella Assange and lawyers Jennifer Robinson and Barry Pollock addressed media. Robinson said Assange had told the PM that he had “saved his life”.

• Stella Assange thanked everyone who helped and supported the campaign and asked for their privacy to “let our family be a family”.

Some supporters in attendance tonight have helped campaign for Assange’s release for years.

Katherine Kelly, who is a member of Alliance for Political Prosecutions, said Assange’s release “meant so much…a week ago I would have never seen this happening”.

“This has been a gargantuan fight for truth, for press freedom and for justice...it’s just fantastic, I feel like crying,” she said.

When asked if Julian Assange will speak in the coming days, Stella says “no comment”.

She has also been asked if WikiLeaks will continue to publish leaked papers:

Look, he just arrived in Australia after being in a high security prison for over five years and... A 72-hour flight here or something like that. It’s premature.

Julian has to recover – that’s the priority. And the fact that Julian will always defend human rights, will always defend victims. He’s always done that. And that’s just part of who he is.

He’s deeply principled. And he remains deeply principled. And unafraid.

Stella:

I think that he will be pardoned if the press unite to push back against this precedent. Because it affects all of you. It affects your future ability to warn the public and to publish without fear.

Stella Assange says freedom of the press is in a “dangerous place” and the US should have dropped the case against Julian Assange.

That would have been the only good outcome for the press in general if the US government had abandoned this case entirely. Now, you have... You have the press in … as vulnerable a position as Julian has been.

Stella Assange has been asked if she would like to see Julian Assange pardoned. She said today they are celebrating his release, but he should be pardoned.

That precedent now can and will be used in the future against the rest of the press. So it is in the interest of all of the press to seek for this current state of affairs to change through reform of the Espionage Act.

Through increased press protections, and yes, eventually when time comes – not today – a pardon.

Robinson was asked about the DNC email leaks – where WikiLeaks leaked emails from Democrat staff, causing harm to the Clinton campaign.

There’s clearly public interest in the DNC materials released by WikiLeaks and in terms of the legality of the publications, there’s a US court decision showing that it had the highest possible protection of the first amendment.

So for a principle point of view, people might not like the politics of any particular publication, but that publication is absolutely protected by the first amendment as the US courts have found.

His wife Stella has been asked about what it was like seeing him – she says she can’t put it into words.

We embraced and I mean, I think you’ve seen the pictures. I don’t want to express in words what is obvious from the image.

And she asked for privacy…

Julian needs time to recover. To get used to freedoms. Someone told me yesterday who had been through something similar, that freedom comes slowly. And I want Julian to have that space to rediscover freedom, slowly. And quickly.

Robinson has been asked about the argument that Assange put lives at risk and that what he published wasn’t in the public interest:

Well, to start with – there’s no evidence of any actual harm. And that’s exactly what the US government acknowledged in court today in Saipan.

The public interest in those publications is clear. Evidence of war crimes, that the US had not disclosed the extent of civilian casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan. The use of torture and other forms of human rights abuse around the world.

The fact that Julian has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize every year. So to suggest that this was not in the public interest – I don’t understand the basis in which they could possibly suggest that.