Assange arrives in US territory of Saipan for court hearing

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has arrived on the island of Saipan ahead of his court hearing, Wikileaks said on Wednesday.

On Tuesday it was revealed Assange had struck a deal with the United States in the long-running dispute over his extradition.

Assange is expected to plead guilty at the court hearing to conspiracy to unlawfully obtain and distribute classified documents as part of a deal with the US justice system and be sentenced to more than five years in prison.

The sentence corresponds to the length of time the whistleblower has already spent in a high-security prison in London.

The 52-year-old is then expected to travel on to his homeland in Australia.

Washington accuses Assange of stealing and publishing secret material from military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan with the whistleblower Chelsea Manning, thereby allegedly endangering the lives of US intelligence sources and others.

Assange was released from prison in London on Monday without being noticed by the public and left the UK on a chartered plane. After a stopover in the Thai capital Bangkok, he flew on to Saipan.