Australian politicians advocate for release of WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange

• Assange faces espionage charges in the US and a potential sentence of up to 175 years in prison.
• Australian MPs voted 86-42 in favor of allowing Assange to return home.
• Assange’s legal team asserts he faces a risk of taking his own life if extradited to the US.

Ahead of a crucial legal hearing, Australia’s parliament has passed a motion urging the US and UK to release Julian Assange. Mr. Assange, an Australian citizen currently detained in London’s Belmarsh Prison, is scheduled to appear before the UK’s High Court next week for his final appeal against US extradition.

He faces espionage charges in the US and a potential sentence of up to 175 years in prison. Australian MPs voted 86-42 in favor of allowing Mr. Assange to return home. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who backed the motion, has been advocating for a conclusion to the Assange case since assuming office in 2022.

During a state visit in October, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese directly raised the matter with US President Joe Biden. This action followed a cross-party delegation of Australian MPs traveling to Washington to lobby US lawmakers for Mr. Assange’s freedom.

American authorities accuse the WikiLeaks founder of breaking the law and endangering lives by publishing thousands of classified documents in 2010 and 2011.

He has long maintained that the case against him is politically motivated. His legal team asserts that he faces a risk of taking his own life if he is extradited to the US. In 2021, a UK judge halted Mr. Assange’s extradition, citing worries about his mental health.

The High Court:

Subsequently, the High Court overturned that ruling, stating that the US had demonstrated it would safely care for Mr. Assange. In 2022, then-Home Secretary Priti Patel endorsed the US extradition request, prompting his renewed legal appeal.

Mr. Assange’s family has persisted in urging the Australian government to take further action to secure his release, cautioning that the 52-year-old could face decades within the US justice system if extradited. Australia’s Attorney General Mark Dreyfus stated that he discussed the matter with his US counterpart Merrick Garland during a meeting in Washington last month.

“This was a private discussion, however, this government’s position on Mr Assange is very clear, and has not changed. It is time this matter is brought to an end,” Mr Dreyfus said in a statement.

Mr. Assange has been held in the high-security Belmarsh Prison since 2019. Before that, he spent seven years seeking asylum in the South American country while residing in the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

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