Crime & Justice

Australian PM backs motion calling for WikiLeaks founder Assange’s release

Sydney, Australia, Feb. 15 (EFE).- Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and 85 other lawmakers backed a motion urging the United States and the United Kingdom to end the case against the founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, and allow him to return to Australia.

The motion, which was presented by independent lawmaker Andrew Wilkie in the House of Representatives, secured 86 votes in favor and 42 against in a parliamentary session held on Wednesday night.

Assange, 52, faces more than 18 criminal charges for violating the US Espionage Act and could face up to 175 years in prison.

Since 2019, the Australian journalist has been held in London’s high-security Berlmarsh prison after the Ecuadorian embassy in London withdrew the political asylum it granted him in 2012.

“(This motion) is going to send a clear message to the UK and the US that Julian has the support of the Australian people,” Gabriel Shipton, Assange’s brother, told local television network Sky News Australia.

The motion comes a few days before a two-day hearing by the UK High Court in London on Feb. 20 and 21 on Assange’s final appeal against his extradition to the US.

After coming to power in May 2022, the Albanese administration has taken a more active role regarding the potential extradition of Assange to the US, which the Australian leader also discussed with US President Joe Biden during a visit to the US in October.

Albanese also told Australian public broadcaster ABC in May that the situation around Assange was “frustrating” because “the person who released the information (Chelsea Manning) is walking freely now, having served some time in incarceration.”

Former US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning (formerly Bradley Manning) was convicted of leaking classified information to WikiLeaks and was released in 2017 after her 35-year prison sentence was commuted.

Assange is accused of his alleged role in obtaining and subsequently publishing on the WikiLeaks website classified documents related to US national defense, including evidence exposing human rights violations committed by the US military in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The founder of WikiLeaks, who claims that the case against him is politically motivated, has fragile mental health and is at risk of committing suicide if his appeal is rejected, according to his lawyers. EFE

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