After a prolonged legal battle spanning continents, Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, has agreed to plead guilty to a felony charge in a deal with the U.S. Justice Department. This agreement will allow him to walk free and return to his home country of Australia.

Assange, who has been held in a high-security British prison for the past five years while fighting extradition to the U.S., is expected to appear in a U.S. court in the Northern Mariana Islands this week to formally enter his plea. The Justice Department has recommended a 62-month sentence as part of the agreement, which will be credited for the time he has already served in the U.K.

The plea deal, which must be approved by a federal judge, resolves Assange's long-running legal saga that began with allegations of rape and sexual assault in Sweden in 2010. He later sought refuge in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he spent seven years until his arrest by British authorities in 2019.

Assange was indicted in 2019 on multiple charges related to his alleged role in obtaining and sharing classified information about U.S. military activities in Afghanistan and Iraq through WikiLeaks. The U.S. government has long contended that the leaked files jeopardized lives and damaged national security.

Despite facing the prospect of a lengthy prison sentence, Assange has maintained that the charges against him were politically motivated and that he acted as a journalist reporting on government activities. His supporters have hailed him as a hero who brought important information to light, while critics argue that his actions went beyond legitimate journalism.

The plea deal comes just months after President Joe Biden was considering a request from Australia to allow Assange to return to his home country. The White House was not involved in the decision to resolve Assange's case, according to a White House official.

As Assange prepares to return to Australia, his wife, Stella Assange, expressed gratitude to all those who stood by him and fought for his freedom. The WikiLeaks founder has been a polarizing figure, with some viewing him as a champion of press freedom and others seeing him as a threat to national security.