Biden reveals he’s considering Australia’s request to drop Assange prosecution

Julian Assange’s supporters have urged Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to intensify his efforts to convince Joe Biden to drop the charges against the WikiLeaks founder after the US president said he was considering Australia’s request.

Albanese said he was encouraged by Biden’s comments, which followed persistent lobbying and a successful House of Representatives motion in February that called on the United States and Britain to bring the “matter to a close so that Mr Assange can return home to his family in Australia”.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in 2014.Credit: AFP

Asked about Australia’s request to drop the charges against Assange on Thursday (AEST) as he hosted Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida for an official visit, Biden said: “We’re considering it”.

“This is an encouraging comment from President Biden,” Albanese told the ABC, adding Australia had consistently lobbied for the US government to drop its pursuit. “Enough is enough, there’s nothing to be gained by Mr Assange’s continued incarceration.”

In October last year, Albanese raised the plight of Assange directly with Biden while on a state visit to Washington.

Assange’s brother Gabriel Shipton welcomed Biden’s comments, saying: “This is time for the government to really double down and try to achieve an outcome.

“This is a moment to keep pushing. Biden has opened the door to a political intervention.”

Pat Conroy, Australia’s minister for defence industry who is currently in the US for AUKUS talks, told the ABC AM program: “The Australian government from Prime Minister Albanese down have been very clear that we think the Assange matter needs to be brought to a close. We think [it] has been going on for too long and we’ve communicated that to both the United States and UK government, so I welcome President Biden’s comment.”

Assange has been indicted on 17 espionage charges and one charge of computer misuse over his website’s publication of a trove of classified US documents almost 15 years ago. American prosecutors allege that Assange, 52, encouraged and helped US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning steal diplomatic cables and military files that WikiLeaks published, putting lives at risk.

Fumio Kishida, Japan’s prime minister, left, and US President Joe Biden at a news conference during a state visit in Washington.Credit: Bloomberg

Australia argues there is a disconnect between the US treatment of Assange and Manning. Then-president Barack Obama commuted Manning’s 35-year sentence to seven years, which allowed her release in 2017.

Assange’s supporters say he is a journalist protected by the First Amendment who exposed US military wrongdoing in Iraq and Afghanistan that was in the public interest. Assange’s wife, Stella Assange, has said the WikiLeaks founder “is being persecuted because he exposed the true cost of war in human lives”. She has said his health continues to deteriorate in prison and she fears he’ll die behind bars.

WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Kristinn Hrafnsson, responding to Biden’s comments, said in a statement that “it is not too late for President Biden to stop Julian’s extradition to the US, which was a politically motivated act by his predecessor”.

“By dropping the charges against Julian he will be protecting freedom of expression and the rights of journalists and publishers globally,” she said. “We urge him to end this legal process; to free Julian; and to recognise that journalism is not a crime.”

A British court ruled last month that Assange can’t be extradited to the United States on espionage charges unless American authorities guarantee he won’t get the death penalty.

with AP