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WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has walked free from a US court after pleading guilty to one charge in a deal that resolves a long-running legal case over the publication of classified documents, the Evening Standard reported.

Assange appeared before a judge in the US territory of the Northern Mariana Islands in the Pacific just after midnight on Wednesday and pleaded guilty to a single felony charge after the US dropped 17 other espionage charges against him.

He admitted to his role in the conspiracy to violate the Espionage Act and was sentenced to time already served in a British prison.

Assange wore a dark coloured suit and did not answer questions from reporters on the short walk into and out of the court.

The court hearing followed his dramatic release from Belmarsh Prison in London on Monday where he has spent five years, largely in solitary confinement, fighting extradition.

Assange left the UK on Monday evening and flew to Saipan via Bangkok after the plea deal was signed on June 19.

Speaking outside court after the hearing, Assange’s US lawyer Barry Pollack said his prosecution was “unprecedented” and the WikiLeaks founder “suffered tremendously in his fight for free speech”.

After the hearing Assange boarded a flight to his native Australia to be reunited with his wife, two young sons and other members of the family.