SAIPAN, Northern Mariana Islands — WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was freed by a court on the US Pacific island territory of Saipan on Wednesday (June 26) after pleading guilty to violating US espionage law, in a deal that will see him return home to Australia.

During the three hour hearing, Assange pled guilty to one criminal count of conspiring to obtain and disclose classified US national defence documents but said he had believed the Constitution's First Amendment, which protects free speech, shielded his activities.

"Working as a journalist I encouraged my source to provide information that was said to be classified in order to publish that information," he told the court.

"I believed the First Amendment protected that activity but I accept that it was... a violation of the espionage statute."

Chief US District Judge Ramona V. Manglona accepted his guilty plea and released him due to time already served in a British jail.

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