Watch view of Bangkok airport where plane carrying Julian Assange has landed

Watch view of Don Mueang International Airport, Bangkok, on Tuesday 25 June, where a plane believed to be carrying Julian Assange has landed.

The WikiLeaks founder is due to plead guilty on Wednesday to violating US espionage law, in a deal that will end his imprisonment in Britain and allow him to return home to Australia, ending a 14-year legal odyssey.

Mr Assange, 52, has agreed to plead guilty to a single criminal count of conspiring to obtain and disclose classified US national defence documents, according to filings in the US District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands.

He is due to be sentenced to 62 months of time already served at a hearing in Saipan at 9am local time on Wednesday (2300 GMT Tuesday).

The island in the Pacific was chosen due to Assange’s opposition to travelling to the mainland US and for its proximity to Australia, prosecutors said.

Mr Assange left Belmarsh prison in the UK on Monday before being bailed by the UK High Court and boarding a flight that afternoon, Wikileaks said in a statement posted on social media platform X.