Julian Assange returns home to Australia a free man

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange returned home to Australia to start life as a free man on June 26, after admitting he revealed US defence secrets in a deal that unlocked the door to his London prison cell.

Mr Assange landed on a chilly Canberra evening in a private jet, the final act of an international drama that led him from a five-year stretch in the high-security Belmarsh prison in Britain to a courtroom in a US Pacific island territory and, finally, home.

His white hair swept back, the Australian raised a fist as he emerged from the plane door, striding across the tarmac to give a hug to his wife, Mrs Stella Assange, that lifted her off the ground, and then to embrace his father.

Dozens of television journalists, photographers and reporters peered through the airport fencing to see Mr Assange, who wore a dark suit, white shirt and brown tie.

Mr Assange has not spoken publicly since being released and did not appear at a WikiLeaks press conference at a hotel in Canberra, where Mrs Assange said it was too soon to say what her husband would do next.

“You have to understand, he needs time, he needs to recuperate, and this is a process,” she told reporters, apparently close to tears.

“I ask you please to give us space, to give us privacy, to find our place, to let our family be a family before he can speak again at a time of his choosing.”

She added she believed her husband would one day be pardoned.

Mr Assange’s lawyer Jen Robinson said he had spoken to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese when the plane touched down, and “told the Prime Minister that he had saved his life”.

Australia Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who has lobbied for years to free Mr Assange, said he had spoken to him by phone after his plane landed.