Sydney, Australia – US President Joe Biden is currently contemplating a request from Australian officials to halt the prosecution of Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks. The Australian parliament, with the support of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, recently passed a resolution urging for Assange’s return to his homeland.
Assange, who is 52 years old, is facing criminal charges in the US for leaking military records. He has consistently denied these charges, asserting that the act of leaking the records was an exercise in journalism. President Biden disclosed on Wednesday that the request from Australia is under consideration.
The extradition proceedings of Assange in the UK have been temporarily suspended as of March, pending assurances from the United States that he will not face the death penalty. A decision by the High Court in London regarding the extradition is forthcoming at the end of May.
Stella, Assange’s wife, took to Twitter to urge President Biden to drop the charges against her husband. Meanwhile, Kristinn Hrafnsson, the current editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks, condemned the extradition attempt, labeling it a politically motivated move by Biden’s predecessor. US prosecutors are seeking to try Assange on 18 counts, primarily under the Espionage Act, relating to the release of confidential military records and diplomatic communications concerning the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Since founding WikiLeaks in 2006, Assange claims to have published over ten million documents, many of which are classified or restricted reports on war, espionage, and corruption. In a notable incident in 2010, WikiLeaks released a video from a US military helicopter showing civilians being killed in Baghdad, raising questions about unreported civilian casualties during the Afghanistan conflict.
Assange’s legal battles have spanned several years, including seeking refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy for seven years before being incarcerated in Belmarsh prison in London for the past five years. Initially facing claims in Sweden that he sexually assaulted and raped women, these charges were dropped in 2019 due to the expiration of the statute of limitations, as he faced indictment in the US.