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Julian Assange is expected to plead guilty to US espionage charges in the US District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands.
photo: AFP or Licensor
A journalist from the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands says WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s court hearings on Saipan will make “this point in the middle of the Pacific” the center of the world one day.
The Northern Mariana Islands, a small group of islands in the Pacific Ocean with a population of about 50,000, are gearing up for a landmark legal case.
In 2010, WikiLeaks published hundreds of thousands of classified U.S. military documents about Washington’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the largest such security breach in U.S. military history.
Assange is expected to plead guilty to U.S. espionage charges at 9 a.m. local time on Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands.
Saipantribune.com reporter and RNZ Pacific Radio Saipan correspondent Mark Rabago will appear in court and says this is a significant moment for Saipan.
“Not everyone knows about Saipan, let alone can spell it correctly. So this is one of the few times in a decade that the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands or Saipan has been put on a map,” he said.
He said there was great interest from the world media and that journalists from Japan were expected to fly in overnight.
“It means a lot that our little island, this little island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, is the center of the world,” Rabago said.
Rabago said Assange flew to Thailand from the UK via Thailand on a private jet.
He said it was unclear why the case was being heard on Saipan, but there was some speculation.
“He doesn’t want to set foot on the U.S. mainland, and the Northern Marianas are the closest place to Australia, other than Guam,” Rabago said.
Assange is expected to Return to Australia After that hearing.
Rabago added that Assange may not be able to appear in court in Guam, while he currently has a court date in Saipan.
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