Saipan Island

June 26, 2024

Julian Assange is en route to a courtroom on the Pacific island of Saipan where he is expected to plead guilty to a single criminal charge in a plea deal that will see him walk free and return home to Australia.

About Saipan Island:

It is located in the Western Pacific Ocean.
It is the capital of the Northern Mariana Islands (NMI), a US commonwealth in the western Pacific which beginsroughly 70 km (44 miles) north of Guam and stretches across 14 islands.
It was a colony of Spain, Germany and then Japan, the United States took control of the island in World War-II.
Like territories such as Guam or Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands are part of the US without the full status of a state.
In 1975 residents of this island voted to join the United States as a territory. The territory has a permanent delegate in the US House of Representative, although they cannot vote.
Highest point: Mount Tapochau
Economy: Tourism is the mainstay of the economy and it is popular with Korean and Chinese tourists.
It is the only part of the United States that Chinese citizens can enter without a visa.