Shaimaa Khalil
Asia Correspondent

Image source, Reuters

The scene outside the US district courthouse here in Saipan is serene and surreal. This tall, modern-looking building with its grey pillars and glass facade overlooks a pristine beach and is surrounded by lush greenery. It’s impossibly hot and humid here and it's unclear how long Assange will spend on this picturesque island, chosen specifically because it’s not mainland USA where Assange refused to travel because he had no confidence or trust in the US authorities.

So it's in this picturesque US Pacific territory that the final chapter of this legal saga will play out. He'll plead guilty to a single felony: illegally obtaining and disclosing national security material.

Saipan is also closer to his home country Australia where he will travel after the hearing.

The case has spanned almost a decade and a half and involved five countries and relentless advocacy and diplomacy. It polarised opinions and raised questions about freedom of speech especially when it came to national security reporting but here in Saipan, for the first time in a very long time, Julian Assange gets to go home a free man.

Image source, X/Reuters

As we've been reporting, Assange is expected in court in Saipan - the capital of the Northern Nariana Islands - in the coming hours.

According to court filings, the island was chosen by Assange because of his unwillingness to travel to the US mainland.

After he pleads guilty to a single count of conspiracy to obtain and disseminate national defence information, Assange is expected to be sentenced to time served and told he is free to go.

He is then expected to fly to his native Australia, where his family is waiting.

What happens after that remains to be seen but a lawyer for Assange, Greg Barns, told the BBC it was "pretty clear that Julian can now start to move on with his life”.

Image source, Reuters

According to the Reuters news agency, Assange was seen leaving Saipan airport in a motorcade a short time ago.

He is due to appear in court on the island to plead guilty to one charge of violating the Espionage Act in the coming hours.

You'd be forgiven if you've never heard of the Northern Mariana Islands - a self-governing US commonwealth in the Pacific that is made up of 14 islands.

The islands are home to around 55,000 people - with most of the population living on Saipan, the biggest island and the capital.

It is implied in a letter by the Department of Justice (DOJ) that Assange doesn’t trust coming to the US mainland for his plea deal and therefore a compromise has been reached.

The Wikileaks founder has a deep distrust of the US government, going so far as to accuse officials of allegedly plotting to kill him.

The Northern Mariana Islands also make sense logistically because they are about 2,000 miles (3,200km) away from Assange's native Australia, where he is expected to travel to next.

Read more about the islands here.

Image source, EBU

This is what we're all looking at right now - doors at the airport in Saipan, the capital of the Northern Mariana Islands.

Journalists have gathered here hoping for a glimpse of the newly arrived Julian Assange and maybe a comment from him too.

He touched down roughly 45 minures ago and is due in court in the coming hours.

If you're just joining us now, welcome - here's a recap of the story.

• Julian Assange arrived a short time ago in Saipan, the largest of the Northern Mariana Islands, a US territory, to plead guilty to one charge of espionage - then he will go free due to time served
• He was released from a UK prison, after serving five years, under a deal arranged by the US authorities, which includes dismissing the 17 other charges he was facing
• He was accused of conspiring to break into US military databases to acquire sensitive information, via his website Wikileaks which published confidential information relating to war and spying
• The website published thousands of confidential documents that suggested the US military had killed hundreds of civilians in unreported incidents during the war in Afghanistan
• The deal marks the end of more than a decade of legal battles over his fate

Image source, Reuters

Welcome back to our live page. We're restarting our coverage now that Julian Assange has landed in the Northern Mariana Islands, a US territory in the Pacific.

He's there to formalise a plea deal, where he will admit one espionage offence - instead of the 18 charges he was originally facing.

The deal means the Wikileaks founder will not spend any time in a US prison, as he has already spent five years in the UK's high security Belmarsh prison, fighting extradition to the US.

After the court hearing, he'll return home to Australia.

Stay with us as we bring you the latest updates.

With Julian Assange now on a six-hour flight to Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands, we're pausing this page.

We'll be back on Wednesday morning, when Assange is expected to plead guilty to one charge, before returning to Australia. Before we go, here's a recap of the story:

• Assange and US authorities agreed to a plea deal, where he will admit one espionage offence - instead of the 18 charges he was originally facing
• The deal means Assange will not spend any time in a US prison, as he has already spent five years in the UK's high security Belmarsh prison, fighting extradition to the US
• It emerged today - via a court document in London - that the deal was signed last Wednesday, with Assange leaving the UK on Monday evening

• The chartered flights from the UK to Australia, via Thailand and the Northern Mariana Islands, have cost more than $500,000 (£393,715). Assange's wife says the Australian government has footed the bill, but the campaign will repay it. He was not allowed to fly commercial, she added

• In an interview with the BBC, Stella Assange said she was "elated" by her husband's release - and they will seek a pardon, once he has pleaded guilty

Image source, .

For more reading:

• See our news story here
• Our explainer on who Assange is, and what he did, can be found here
• And to learn about document dumps that shook the world, head here

News agencies AFP and Reuters had live footage of the moment Assange's plane left Bangkok airport.

It's dark and grainy - it's almost 21:30 in Bangkok - but here it is:

Image source, AFP TV

According to flight tracking site Flightradar - and the BBC's reporter on the ground Ryn Jirenuwat - Assange's plane has now departed Bangkok airport.

Flight VJT199 is on its way to Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands, the US territory where he'll attend court on Wednesday.

The journey is expected to last just under six hours.

We're expecting Julian Assange's private jet to set off for the Northern Mariana Islands any minute now.

His official campaign has just posted on X:, external "Julian's flight will be taking off shortly. We must keep a close eye on this as he will be entering the US overseas territory of the Mariana Islands."

Image source, Getty Images

Gabriel Shipton, Assange's brother, tells the Reuters news agency it is almost time for the "millions of people who have been advocating" for Assange to "have a drink and a celebration".

Earlier, Shipton told ABC's 7:30 programme, external that he knew for weeks that his brother was about to be released from prison in the UK.

"He's been very excited, a little bit anxious, mostly excited about being free after all these years," Shipton said.

Speaking about the footage of Assange boarding the plane at Stansted, Shipton said it was "great" to see his brother in the daylight again.

He added that the last time they saw each other was in the visitors' room at Belmarsh prison in the UK.

Though he did not want to celebrate his brother's return too early, Shipton thanked campaigners for their support, adding that support from the Australian government has been "monumental".

People following Assange's case first "began to get the feeling the US wasn't so keen on extradition" last month, says legal expert Joshua Rozenberg.

"At the last hearing, the US government failed to provide diplomatic assurances requested by a court here in London that might have put an end to his appeal, that might have enabled the extradition to go ahead," Rozenberg tells the BBC News channel.

You can our report on last month's case in the High Court in London here.

As we've reported, Julian Assange is due to fly to the US territory of the Northern Mariana Islands soon.

According to flight tracking sites, take-off from Bangkok in Thailand is in 45 minutes.

Image source, .

Shaimaa Khalil
Reporting from Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands

Image source, Getty Images

Welcome to a hot and humid night in Saipan - where half the passengers on the flight here were journalists.

We’re expecting Julian Assange to land here in a few hours to enter his guilty plea.

We're here - on this remote US territory - because Assange doesn’t want to be in the US itself. He has a deep mistrust of the United States government and has no confidence in what might happen if he landed there.

So, after being released from a UK prison he’s flying across the world, with only a few hours until his official release and his freedom.

This is a legal saga that spanned nearly a decade and a half - and five countries - and will now conclude here in the Northern Mariana Islands.

From here, Julian Assange will return home to Australia a free man.

Assange's long-time friend and supporter, Vaughan Smith, tells the BBC today is "not a complete victory for the freedom of the press", since Assange is still having to plead guilty as part of the deal.

Smith also thinks Assange has been failed by the British and American justice systems, telling the World at One "the law hasn't been applied to him, in my view, in the way you and I would expect it to be applied to us".

"The legal process has been weaponised,"says Smith, who founded the Frontline Club in London for journalists.

"And he's a political prisoner. That's been quite a disappointing low for British justice... of course American justice as well."

Asked about whether Assange has suffered over the past years, Smith says: "It's very sad, I think it's a case of real unpleasantness, actually - bullying, state bullying."

As we reported earlier, the Australian government paid for Julian Assange's private flight from the UK to Australia - via Bangkok and the Northern Mariana Islands - with the Assange campaign due to repay the $520,000 cost.

Julian's wife Stella has just said on X that he "was not permitted to fly commercial airlines or routes to Saipan and onward to Australia".

Image source, EPA

Earlier, Wikileaks posted a video which shows Assange inside his plane as it arrives in Bangkok's Don Mueang International airport.

He can later be seen walking out of the plane and sitting inside a vehicle.

His plane stopped to refuel in Bangkok after leaving the UK on Monday. According to tracking data, the plane will set off for the Northern Mariana Islands in less than two hours.

Image source, Wikileaks

Image source, Wikileaks

Image source, EPA

• Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador celebrated Julian Assange's release in a post on X:, external "At least in this case, the Statue of Liberty did not remain an empty symbol"

• Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told parliament on Tuesday he wants Assange to be "brought home to Australia", adding that his case has "dragged on for too long"

• Former US Vice-President Mike Pence strongly criticised the plea deal, calling it a "miscarriage of justice"

• Colombian President Gustavo Petro congratulated Assange, external on his "freedom", and invited Assange and his wife to visit Colombia

• A spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry said Wikileaks' revelations had "allowed the international community to understand more facts and truth"

• Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela's president, said Assange , externalis "an example of courage and bravery in the battle for the truth"

• Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said she is happy the case "finally has a resolution", according to Reuters news agency.

• The United Nations welcomed his release from UK detention, with spokeswoman Liz Throssell saying it marks "significant steps towards definitively settling this case"

In the UK, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has released a statement on Julian Assange's plea deal.

A bail hearing for Assange was held in private last Thursday, the statement said, leading to his release from prison in the UK on Monday.

Stephen Parkinson, director of public prosecutions, said the case has "absorbed considerable time and resource from the criminal justice system over many years".

He said the intended outcome of the plea agreement is "to accomplish the primary objective of delivering justice", and that it will also save "continual substantial resource".

The CPS' head of extradition said his unit had dealt with a number of "novel and challenging" legal issues, adding that Assange "utilised all the legal protections available to him".

You can read the full statement here, external.