Canberra, Australia - Julian Assange returned home to Australia to start life as a free man Wednesday after completing a deal with the US government that unlocked the door to his London prison cell.

Assange landed on a chilly Canberra evening in a private jet, the final act of an international drama that led him from a five-year stretch in the high-security Belmarsh prison in Britain to a courtroom in a US Pacific island territory, and then finally, home.

His white hair swept back, the Australian raised a fist as he emerged from the plane door, striding across the tarmac to give a hug to his wife Stella that lifted her off the ground, and then to embrace his father.

Dozens of journalists peered through the airport fencing to see Assange, who wore a dark suit, white shirt and brown tie.

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"He will be able to spend quality time with his wife Stella, and his two children, be able to walk up and down on the beach and feel the sand through his toes in winter – that lovely chill," said Assange's father, John Shipton.

At a press conference, Stella Assange thanked the "millions of people" who she said contributed to his release.

"He needs time, he needs to recuperate, and this is a process. I ask you please to give us space, to give us privacy, to find our space so that our family can be a family before he can speak again, at a time of his choosing," she told reporters.

Assange's long battle with US prosecutors came to an unexpected end in the Northern Mariana Islands where a judge accepted his guilty plea on a single count of conspiracy to obtain and disseminate national defense information.

As part of a behind-the-scenes legal negotiation with the Justice Department, he was sentenced to the time he had already served in London – five years and two months, much of it in solitary confinement – and given his liberty.

"You will be able to walk out of this courtroom a free man," the judge told him.

Assange had published hundreds of thousands of confidential US documents on the whistleblowing website from 2010. Among other materials were videos showing the brutality of the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

For this, he was pursued for years by successive US administrations.

"Working as a journalist, I encouraged my source to provide material that was said to be classified," Assange told the court.

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Assange's lawyer Jen Robinson told reporters it was a "historic day" that "brings to an end 14 years of legal battles".

"It also brings to an end a case which has been recognized as the greatest threat to the First Amendment in the 21st century," she said.

Australian Prime Minster Anthony Albanese said he was "very pleased" by the outcome.

"Regardless of your views about his activities, and they will be varied, Mr Assange's case has dragged on for too long," he told parliament in Canberra.

The UN also hailed Assange's release, saying the case had raised human rights concerns.

The US justice department, meanwhile, said after the hearing that Assange was banned from returning there without permission.