CANBERRA — Julian Assange's father, John Shipton, could breathe a massive sigh of relief on Wednesday (June 26) after a decade-long campaign to free his son.

The WikiLeaks founder on Wednesday was released by a court on the US Pacific island territory of Saipan after pleading guilty to violating US espionage law.

Assange's family, including his father, children and wife, Stella, gathered in Australia's capital Canberra ahead of his expected evening arrival by private jet, marking the end of a long legal fight tied to WikiLeaks' release of hundreds of thousands of classified US defence documents in 2010.

Shipton said he planned to ask his son in a low-key Australian way when he arrives: "Where have you been?"

"My faith has never, ever, ever died," he told Reuters in an interview at parliament.

"That Julian can come home to Australia and see his family regularly and do the ordinary things of life is a treasure. Life measured amongst the beauty of the ordinary is the essence of life," Shipton said.

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