If convicted, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange faces up to 175 years in prison.
Washington:
U.S. President Joe Biden said on Wednesday he was “considering” Australia’s request to drop an indictment on spying charges against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
Australia’s parliament, with the Prime Minister’s support, passed a motion in February calling for an end to the legal saga surrounding Assange. Assange has been imprisoned in the UK since 2019 while fighting extradition to the United States.
“We’re considering it,” Biden replied when asked by reporters at the White House whether he would respond to Australia’s request.
Biden raised the issue during a meeting in the Oval Office with visiting Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, but did not elaborate.
Assange, a 52-year-old Australian citizen, was indicted by the U.S. government for his role in the 2010 leak of a trove of classified documents related to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
If convicted, he faces up to 175 years in prison.
In response to Biden’s remarks, Assange’s wife Stella said on social platform X: “Do the right thing. Drop the charges.”
She has previously said Assange’s physical and mental health is declining in prison and her husband “will die” if sent to the United States.
Assange and his supporters say he exposed U.S. military misconduct and frame his case as a fight for media freedom. Washington said his leaks put lives at risk by publishing documents containing the names of intelligence sources.
-“So cruel”-
Assange is currently waiting to learn whether he can make a final appeal against extradition after a British court delayed a ruling on his case last month. Now expected to be May 20th.
In late March, London’s High Court gave the United States three weeks to further “guarantee” his treatment if he was sent to the United States to face charges.
WikiLeaks editor Kristinn Hrafnsson called for a “political solution” to Assange’s plight on Wednesday, as supporters rallied in central London on the eve of the fifth anniversary of his arrest.
“This is a case that should never have been launched in the first place,” Hrafnsson told AFP at the rally.
He said the time Assange spent in the high-security Belmarsh prison in southeast London was “so excessive and cruel”.
Hrafnsson said Canberra should link the case to the landmark AUKUS security deal it signed with Washington and London to secure Assange’s release.
“They should be bold and say we have nothing to discuss unless you drop the charges against Julian Assange so he can walk free and return to Australia,” he said.
Before being jailed, Assange spent seven years in Ecuador’s London embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he faced sexual assault charges that were later dropped.
Other protests in support of Assange are expected around the world on Thursday.
Campaign groups including Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders called for his release and condemned the prosecution under the US Espionage Act of 1917, which was never used to publish classified information.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
