Australia takes action to save Assange
Australian politicians will hold talks in Washington to prevent the extradition of Julian Assange, Australian citizen and founder of the Wikileaks website, accused of revealing classified US documents.
Six politicians, including former Australian Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce, plan to hold high-level talks at the US State Department, Justice Department, House of Representatives and Senate in Washington to stop Assange’s extradition to the United States. .
Monique Ryan, a member of the Australian House of Representatives, who is part of the delegation that will travel to Washington, said in a statement to the press that they represent politicians who “think it is very important to guarantee the freedom of Assange”, and affirmed that Assange’s health condition is poor.
In the framework of the delegation meetings in the US, they will also put pressure on the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and some other non-governmental organizations so that Assangne is not extradited. It is noteworthy that the visit in question coincided with the visit of the Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, to the White House, scheduled for October.
IN PRISON IN LONDON
WikiLeaks, founded by Assange, published 251,000 secret documents on October 28, 2010, which prove the crimes committed by the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Assange was arrested on April 11, 2019 at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he had taken refuge in June 2012, and was arrested for “breaching bail conditions” and sent to Belmarsh prison in London.
The court decided that Assange, sentenced to 50 weeks in prison, would remain in detention after serving his sentence as part of his extradition request.
The Supreme Court ruled on December 10, 2021 that Assange could be extradited to the United States. With the Westminster Magistrate Court ruling on his extradition on April 20, 2022, then Home Secretary Priti Patel signed the decision to extradite Assange to the United States on June 17, 2022.
Assange’s lawyers also filed an appeal with the Supreme Court on July 1, 2022.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has called on US President Joe Biden’s administration to drop the charges against Assange. Albanese compared Assange’s situation to that of Chelsea Manning, a US soldier who leaked documents to WikiLeaks, drawing attention to the fact that Manning lives freely in the US and that the attitude towards Assange is not the same. (AA)