US President Joe Biden said on Wednesday the United States was “considering” Australia’s request to drop espionage charges against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
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The Australian Parliament passed a motion in February, with the support of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, calling for an end to the legal saga surrounding Julian Assange. This Australian national, arrested exactly five years ago in the United Kingdom, is detained in a London prison and is fighting his extradition to the United States.
“We are considering it” currently, Joe Biden responded to a question from a journalist on the existence of an American response to this Australian request.
The American president, who was walking towards the Oval Office of the White House with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida (on a state visit on Wednesday), did not provide further details.
The extradition of Julian Assange was requested by the United States where he faces 175 years in prison for having published since 2010 more than 700,000 classified documents on American military and diplomatic activities, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan.
At the end of March, British justice requested new guarantees from the United States regarding the treatment that would be reserved for Julian Assange if he were extradited, failing which it could grant the founder of WikiLeaks a last resort in the United Kingdom.
For Julian Assange’s supporters, his legal battle represents a fight for press freedom.
