Australian PM says secretive talks led to Assange deal

CANBERRA: Australia´s prime minister said on Wednesday a string of recent non-disclosed missions to the United States helped to forge the plea deal that freed Julian Assange.

The 52-year-old WikiLeaks founder landed in Canberra hours earlier, after earning his liberty by pleading guilty to a single count of conspiracy to obtain and disseminate US national defence information.

He was sentenced by a court in the US Pacific territory of Northern Mariana Islands to time already served in London´s high-security Belmarsh prison -- five years and two months -- and allowed to walk free.

The US Department of Justice had to make a “range of decisions” for the plea deal to proceed, Anthony Albanese told a news conference in Canberra, stressing that the US department was independent and “not subject to political influence”.

A “whole range of people” had visited the United States as the deal was worked out, the Australian leader told reporters.

“I am surprised that some of it was missed by the people in this room -- some of the visits -- but it´s not up to me to indicate that,” Albanese said.

He advised journalists to “go back and look at some diaries and who has travelled to the United States in recent months”. Albanese said he had exchanged “directly” with Assange´s lawyers during the negotiations.