Glimmer of hope. On the fifth anniversary of his arrest, Julian Assange could see his future become clearer. His wife described as a “good sign” this Thursday the United States’ consideration of a request made by Australia to drop the prosecution against the founder of WikiLeaks.
The day before, US President Joe Biden said in an interview that Washington was examining a request from Australia pleading for the removal of the charges against Julian Assange, a native of that country.
“In the right direction”
“It looks like things might finally be moving in the right direction after five years in Belmarsh high security prison and 14 years since he lost his freedom,” his wife and lawyer, Stella Assange, responded in an interview with the BBC.
On April 11, 2019, Julian Assange was forcibly removed from the Ecuadorian embassy in London. He took refuge there in 2012 to avoid being extradited to Sweden, where he was the subject of rape charges that have since been abandoned, but especially to the United States which accused him of computer hacking.
Now being prosecuted for having made public since 2010 more than 700,000 confidential documents on American military and diplomatic activities, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan, the founder of WikiLeaks, now 52 years old, faces up to 175 years prison in the United States if he is extradited by British justice.
Motion to End Prosecution
Julian Assange “is really not doing well, he is very worried”, underlined his wife, who has already highlighted a risk of suicide. WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Kristinn Hrafnsson, who visited the detainee this Thursday morning at Belmarsh prison, also described the examination of this request as a “positive signal” for the founder of this site, stressing that However, we would need to obtain “more details” before rejoicing.
“This is a sign that this horrific saga of the persecution of Julian Assange, which has gone on for far too long, may be coming to an end,” he added. With the support of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, the Australian Parliament passed a motion in February calling for an end to the prosecution of the founder of WikiLeaks.
“These prosecutions date from the Donald Trump era, it is his legacy, and Joe Biden should have put an end to them from day one,” added Stella Assange. She recalls that former American President Barack Obama, for his part, chose not to prosecute Julian Assange, for fear of “setting a precedent” against the press.
“I hope that Joe Biden will drop the case,” she said, “as the entire human rights and press freedom community is demanding. »