Anthony Albanese lobbies US to end pursuit of Julian Assange

Anthony Albanese has personally lobbied the US to end its pursuit of the WikiLeaks founder and vowed to continue to advocate on his behalf.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Picture: AFP

Anthony Albanese has revealed he has personally lobbied the US government to end its pursuit of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and vowed to continue to advocate on his behalf.

The Prime Minister told parliament on Wednesday that he raised Mr Assange’s case with the US “recently”, declaring it was “time for this matter to be brought to a conclusion”.

“I have raised this personally with representatives of the United States government,” he said.

“My position is clear and has been made clear to the US administration. I will continue to advocate, as I did recently in meetings that I have held.”

Mr Albanese did not specify whether he had raised the Australian citizen’s fate directly with Joe Biden, but the leaders have had several face-to-face meetings, including one just over a fortnight ago on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit in Cambodia.

Mr Albanese, who has faced calls from crossbenchers and members of his own party to seek Mr Assange’s release, said he did not support the WikiLeaks founder’s actions in dumping classified information on to the internet. But he said: “What is the point of continuing this legal action which could be caught up now for many years into the future?”

Mr Assange remains in London’s Belmarsh Prison fighting US attempts to extradite him to face charges over the leaking of hundreds of thousands of leaked documents about the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.

Mr Albanese compared Mr Assange’s situation with that of former US soldier Chelsea Manning, who was pardoned after serving seven years for leaking confidential files to WikiLeaks.

“She is now able to participate freely in US society,” Mr Albanese said.