Wikileaks calls for US to drop charges against Julian Assange

WIKILEAKS has called for the United States to drop charges against Julian Assange ahead of a judge’s decision on whether he will be extradited from the UK.

Assange, 49, who co-founded the website in 2006, faces an 18-count indictment, alleging a plot to hack computers and a conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defence information. The case follows WikiLeaks’s publication of hundreds of thousands of leaked documents in 2010 and 2011 relating to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.

Prosecutors say Assange helped US defence analyst Chelsea Manning breach the Espionage Act, was complicit in hacking by others, and published classified information that put the lives of US informants in danger.

Assange denies plotting with Manning to crack an encrypted password on US Department of Defence computers and says there is no evidence anyone’s safety was put at risk.

He is set to appear at the Old Bailey on Monday, where District Judge Vanessa Baraitser will deliver her judgment on whether he should be extradited to face the charges in the US.

Assange’s lawyers have said he faces up to 175 years in jail if convicted.

Kristinn Hrafnsson, WikiLeaks editor-in-chief, said: “The mere fact that this case has made it to court let alone gone on this long is an historic attack on freedom of speech.”