Key Points
- Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has raised Julian Assange's case directly with US President Joe Biden.
- "I've made it clear that enough is enough," Albanese told Nine newspapers.
- There are concerns extradition proceedings to the US could help Donald Trump in the next US election.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has raised directly with US President Joe Biden during their face-to-face talks at the White House.
“I’ve made it clear that enough is enough — that it’s time it was brought to a conclusion,” Albanese told Nine newspapers.
Earlier this month said he hoped for Assange's release from UK prison.
The Wikileaks founder is behind bars in London’s Belmarsh prison, facing extradition to the United States on the basis of 18 charges of breaching the American Espionage Act.
The United States is seeking to extradite Wikileaks founder Julian Assange over the leak of thousands of documents in 2010 about US operations in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Source: AAP
He is described by supporters as a whistleblower.
The charges stem from his decision to publish classified documents about the US State Department, operations in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as Guantanamo Bay.
The material revealed the US military had killed civilians but the incidents were not reported publicly.
At the same time Assange is also accused of indiscriminately publishing classified documents without proper journalistic rigour.
In 2017 the former CIA Director Mike Pompeo describing Wikileaks as a “hostile intelligence service”, and accusing Assange of seeking “personal self-aggrandizement through the destruction of Western values.”
Albanese has jetted out of Washington DC after four days being hosted by the US Administration, including bilateral talks with President Biden, an opulent state dinner and a visit to the Oval Office.
The trip has been focused on engagement around Congressional bills to pay for the AUKUS nuclear submarine deal, as the cornerstone of joint efforts to avoid the outbreak of conflict in the Indo-Pacific.
Earlier this week SBS News was invited to an Australian press briefing with the US National Security Council’s Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby, and raised the case.
“I am not going to talk about extradition matters, that’s an issue for the Department of Justice,” Admiral Kirby said.
SBS News also put questions to the US Ambassador to Australia Caroline Kennedy during a sit-down interview in Washington DC.
“I think that, as you know, it’s been raised at the highest levels as the Prime Minister has said,” Ambassador Kennedy responded.
“As you also have heard from our American officials this is really something being handled by the Department of Justice.”
The Ambassador was pressed about whether the continued efforts to extradite the Wikileaks founder were a sticking point in the tight Australia-US alliance.
“The relationship, I think, is so strong but obviously people feel strongly about this particular issue as well.”
What will happen to Julian Assange's case?
There have been concerns dropping extradition proceedings could provide ammunition for Donald Trump to attack the issue of national security in the next US election campaign.
But a bipartisan push in Congress by Democrat Jim McGovern and Republican Thomas Massie suggests there is some appetite within the Republican party for the process to be shelved.
Both politicians have signed a letter to the Biden administration which pushes for the prosecution to be dropped on the basis of press freedom and international credibility.
Assange’s brother Gabriel Shipton is on Capitol Hill this week in a fresh bid to build more support for action, including joining protesters to raise more awareness about the case.
It follows a visit to Washington DC by a group of cross-party Australian politicians who’ve been making entreaties to lawmakers in the United States to build momentum.
That delegation included former Nationals Party Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce, Government MP Tony Zappia, Liberal Senator Alex Antic, Independent MP Monique Ryan and two Greens Senators Peter Whish-Wilson and David Shoebridge.
The Australian Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has backed Anthony Albanese’s previous statement, that the case has gone on for too long.
The United States Department of Justice has been contacted for further comment.
