Washington, 25 June 2024 (dpa/MIA) - Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has agreed to plead guilty in a deal with the US Justice Department and return to Australia, court documents filed on Monday state.

The agreement would see Assange pleading guilty to one charge of conspiring to obtain and disclose classified US national defence documents, according to court documents published on Monday evening.

The deal is still to be approved by a US federal judge.

Assange is expected to attend a hearing on the island of Saipan on Wednesday before returning to Australia, the court documents state.

Assange is accused of having stolen and published secret material from US military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan together with whistleblower Chelsea Manning, putting the lives of US informants in danger.

His supporters see Assange as a journalist who brought war crimes to light.

British police arrested Assange in 2019 at the Ecuadorian embassy, where he had taken refuge for seven years, for failing to surrender to an earlier warrant linked to Swedish charges that were eventually dropped.

The police swooped in after Quito revoked Assange's asylum status.

Wikileaks said Assange, an Australian citizen, left the high-security Belmarsh prison in London on bail on Monday and had departed the UK from Stansted Airport at 5 pm local time (1600 GMT).

"Julian Assange is free," a post on the Wikileaks account on social media platform X said.

"He left Belmarsh maximum security prison on the morning of 24 June, after having spent 1901 days there. He was granted bail by the High Court in London and was released at Stansted airport during the afternoon, where he boarded a plane and departed the UK."

The post was followed by a brief video appearing to show Assange being driven to the airport and boarding an aircraft.

MIA file photo