Biden weighs dropping Assange case
US PRESIDENT Joe Biden said this week he was “considering” a request by Australia to drop the prosecution of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on espionage charges.
Australia’s parliament passed a motion in February with the prime minister’s support calling for an end to the legal saga surrounding Assange, who has been held in Britain since 2019 while fighting extradition to the US.
“We’re considering it,” Biden replied when asked if he had a response to Australia’s request.
Australian citizen Assange, 52, has been indicted by the US government over his role in the 2010 leaking of a huge trove of classified documents related to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. If convicted, he faces jail terms of up to 175 years.
In response to Biden’s comments, Assange’s wife Stella said on X: “Do the right thing. Drop the charges.”
She has said that Assange’s physical and mental health are in decline in jail and that her husband “will die” if sent to the US.
Assange and his supporters say he exposed US military wrongdoing and see his case as a fight for media freedom. Washington says his leaks put lives at risk by publishing documents that included the names of intelligence sources.
Assange is waiting to learn if he can make a last-ditch appeal against extradition, after a British court last month delayed a decision on his case. It is now expected on May 20. In late March, the High Court in London gave the US three weeks to provide further “assurances” on his treatment if he is sent there to face charges.
WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Kristinn Hrafnsson has called for “a political solution” to Assange’s plight, as supporters rallied in central London on the eve of the fifth anniversary of his arrest this week. He said Assange’s time in the high-security Belmarsh Prison in south-east London was “so excessive and so brutal”. Hrafnsson said Canberra should link the case to its landmark AUKUS security pact with Washington and London to secure Assange’s release.
Before going to prison, Assange spent seven years in Ecuador’s London embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he faced accusations of sexual assault which were later dropped.