PARIS, June 25. /TASS/. The international non-governmental organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF) called the release of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange from a British prison, where he had been held since 2019, a victory for journalism.

"We are hugely relieved that this dangerous prosecution has finally been brought to a close. This is a victory for journalism and press freedom," the organization said in a short statement posted on its social media page on X.

On Monday, a district court in the Northern Mariana Islands, an unincorporated territory of the United States, said Assange could put in a partial guilty plea as part of a deal with the US justice department. According to NBC, this would allow the Australian journalist to walk free after five years in prison.

Assange has been held in Britain's Belmarsh prison since 2019, where he was placed after being removed from the Ecuadorian embassy in London. For more than five years, Washington has been seeking the extradition of the WikiLeaks founder from Britain to the United States, where he is accused of crimes related to the largest case of disclosure of classified information in American history.