Julian Assange’s father calls on PM to step in as Wikileaks founder prepares for battle

Wikileaks founder’s dad in “shock” at his physical state, as division emerges in UK parliament over what to do with him.

Julian Assange is removed from the Ecuadorean embassy after seven years. Picture: Ruptly

Julian Assange’s father has reportedly called on the Australian government to intervene on behalf of his son, saying the physical state of the Wikileaks founder has left him in “shock”.

“I saw him, the way they dragged him down the steps, the coppers, he didn’t look good,” John Shipton, who lives in Australia, told News Corp.

“I’m 74 and I look better than him and he’s 47.”

In the interview, Mr Shipton said Prime Minister Scott Morrison and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade “should in a nuanced way do something”, citing possible extradition to Australia.

“It can be resolved simply to the satisfaction of all. There has been some talk in a meeting between a senator and a senior DFAT official to extradite Julian to Australia.”

During a visit to see his son in December last year, Mr Shipton likened Assange’s living conditions to “torture”, with years of stress, no sunlight and few visitors taking a heavy toll on his health.

John Shipton, 74, is Julian Assange's father. Picture: Jason Edwards

Assange was on Thursday dragged out of the Ecuadorean embassy, where he has spent the past seven years seeking asylum to avoid British, Swedish and American authorities.

He was found guilty of breaching bail in Britain and is now being held in London’s high-security Belmarsh Prison awaiting sentencing and a bid to extradite him to the US to face

charges of conspiring to break into a Pentagon computer.

It has been revealed overnight the Australian born Wikileaks founder is currently assembling a team of highly experienced lawyers to fight US extradition, including Gareth Peirce, who acted for the Birmingham Six and the Guildford Four.

The Times reports Edward Fitzgerald, QC, and Ben Cooper — specialists who prevented the extraditions of Gary McKinnon and Lauri Love — may also be joining the legal line-up, as well as US lawyer Barry Pollack.

HMP Belmarsh in London, where Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is now being held. Picture: AP

Scotsman Mr McKinnon was infamously accused in 2002 of being behind “the biggest military hack of all time” but avoided extradition after his lawyers argued Asperger’s syndrome meant that he was too ill.

Wikileaks has been seeking public donations to help fund Assange‘s legal battle, which is expected to be lengthy and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Meanwhile, British taxpayers have been left to foot an estimated $AU27m bill associated with his seven-year stay in the embassy.

A split has also emerged within Britain’s Labour Party over leader Jeremy Corbyn’s support of Assange, who he praised for “exposing US atrocities” committed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Mr Corbyn wants Britain to refuse to extradite Mr Assange.

More than 70 British MPs — most of them from Corbyn’s own Labour Party — have signed a letter urging the UK government to make sure Assange faces Swedish justice if prosecutors there reopen a rape allegation against him.

The politicians signed the letter late yesterday urging Home Secretary Sajid Javid to “do everything you can to champion action that will ensure Julian Assange can be extradited to Sweden in the event Sweden makes an extradition request.”

Sweden suspended its investigation of serious sexual misconduct two years ago because Assange was beyond their reach while he was living in the Ecuadorean embassy with political asylum status.

Supporters rally outside the Victorian State Library in Melbourne on Friday. Picture: AAP

The Home Secretary has some leeway to block extradition under certain specific circumstances, including cases where a person facing extradition might face capital punishment or torture in that country. Assange, 47, has denied the sexual misconduct allegations, which he claims are politically motivated. He has not had a chance to enter a plea in response to the US charge, but he has claimed that all of his Wikileaks actions are those of a legitimate journalist.

When he took up residence inside the embassy in 2012, it was to avoid answering the sexual allegations against him in Sweden, which had sought his extradition for questioning. He also sought refuge because of fears that Sweden would ultimately send him to the US.

Swedish prosecutors opened an investigation into Assange after two women accused him of sexual offences during a 2010 visit to Sweden.

Some of the sexual misconduct accusations are no longer viable because their time ran out. But Swedish prosecutors have said a rape case could be reactivated before the statute of limitations for that ends in August 2020.

— with Agencies

Assange’s father says he is shocked at the Wikileaks founder’s physical deterioration.