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‘Enough is enough’: Australian PM denounces US, UK legal pursuit of Assange

   February 15, 2024
‘Enough is enough’: Australian PM denounces US, UK legal pursuit of Assange


Anthony Albanese is challenging attempts to extradite Australians to the US ahead of next week’s court ruling.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has criticized the years of legal persecution of the WikiLeaks founder by the USA and Great Britain Julian Assange ahead of a court decision on his appeal against extradition next week.

Albanese said Thursday that the country as a whole shares the view that “enough is enough.” Assange, 52, is an Australian citizen.

Speech in Parliament after supporting a motion calling for an end to it on Wednesday Assange’s indictment In order for him to return to his family in Australia, Albanese said: “This thing can’t just go on forever.”

Judges at London’s High Court must decide on Assange’s appeal Extradition to the United States at a hearing on February 20th and 21st.

He has spent five years in London’s high-security Belmarsh prison, fighting extradition to the United States, where he is wanted criminally over the publication of confidential military records and diplomatic cables in 2010. Washington says releasing the documents put lives at risk.

Assange was arrested after spending seven years in the Ecuadorian embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden. There he was accused of sexual assault, but these were later dropped.

Reporting from London, Al Jazeera’s Sonia Gallego said his supporters fear Assange could essentially “be behind bars for the rest of his life.”

“What they’re essentially saying is that it’s really the last chance for … Assange to get any kind of freedom,” she said at a news conference held by Assange’s supporters.

They said it would be a “terrible thing” for the idea of ​​press freedom, Gallego reported, and essentially “set a precedent for those tried under the Espionage Act to essentially become pawns of the system.”

Geoffrey Robertson, a former legal adviser to Assange, said the whistleblower had suffered enough.

“He published details about American policies and war crimes committed by America, which were accessible to three million soldiers and officials. And that’s what he has for it,” he told Al Jazeera.

The Australian parliamentary proposal was a “wake-up call” for Washington, he said. He expected the case to drag on after the verdict next week. Assange, he said, would eventually have the opportunity to take his case to the European Court of Human Rights and seek an injunction that could stop his extradition.

“Stand as one”

Albanese said the Australian government had a duty to stand up for its citizens and he had raised the issue “at the highest levels” in the UK and US.

Australia should not interfere in other countries’ legal processes, he said. “But it is appropriate that we express our clear view that these countries must take into account the need for closure.”

MP Andrew Wilkie, who drafted the parliamentary motion, said in Parliament on Wednesday that it sent a strong signal that Australia was “united” on the issue, he said. “No matter what you may think about Mr. Assange, justice is not being served in this case at this time,” he said.





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