Key Points
- Julian Assange’s wife Stella Assange says the federal government "can secure" her husband's release.
- She said Mr Assange's life is "in the hands of the Australian government".
- Ms Assange is hopeful the Australian PM raised her husband's situation with the US president when in Japan.
Julian Assange's release from prison has never been closer, his wife says, as she urged Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to "make it happen".
And his lawyer Jennifer Robinson has also warned Mr Assange's decade-long ordeal had corroded Australia's "moral authority" when it comes to raising freedom of the press in authoritarian countries.
The comments from Stella Assange come just weeks after by keeping the WikiLeaks founder locked up — a comment he repeated in Question Time on Monday.
The comments also come after Australia's new high commissioner to the United Kingdom, Stephen Smith, visited Mr Assange at London's maximum-security Belmarsh Prison in April. Supporters of Mr Assange, who is fighting extradition to the United States over espionage charges, labelled it a "very positive and significant” development.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been in a maximum security prison for 1502 days after seven years being confined within London's Ecuadorian consulate. Source: AAP
"Julian's life is in the hands of the Australian government. It is not my place to tell the Australian government how to do it, but it must be done. Julian has to be released.
"I place hope in Anthony Albanese's will to make it happen. I have to. This is the closest we have ever been to securing Julian's release and I want to encourage and do everything in my power to help that happen."
Ms Assange had initially planned her visit to Australia — her first — to coincide with that of US President Joe Biden, who has since .
But Mr Biden did attend the G7 summit over the weekend in Hiroshima, along with Mr Albanese, who was invited as Japan's guest. Ms Assange said she hoped the Prime Minister and Mr Biden discussed the issue during this time.
Wife of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, Stella Assange, at the National Press Club of Australia in Canberra. Source: AAP / Mick Tsikas
“Whoever is in government, this case is a priority for the Australian government and for the Australian people,” the Australian human rights lawyer said.
“This is in the way of our special relationship ... We'll have one obstacle out of the way to allow that relationship to continue to flourish.”
She warned Mr Assange’s incarceration had “set a precedent” for authoritarian regimes, like China and Russia, when press freedom issues in those countries were raised.
“They will [say]: ‘Well, you can't raise this with us because you are the ones that are putting Julian Assange in prison’,” she said.
“That is a problem that diminishes the moral authority of countries like the US, like the UK, like Australia, to raise free speech concerns with those kinds of countries.”
Foreign Affairs Minister Senator Penny Wong (left) shakes hands with Julian Assange’s legal adviser Jennifer Robinson ahead of addressing the National Press Club in Canberra. Source: AAP / Lukas Coch
Ms Robinson did not rule out attempting to strike a plea deal with US prosecutors to seal his release, potentially on time served.
But she insists Assange has committed no crime.
However, Ms Robinson welcomed a comparison to the case of terrorism-accused David Hicks, who was returned to Australia as part of a political settlement after his defence struck a plea bargain.
Decade-long ordeal
Ms Assange was also part of her husband's legal team during his confinement in the Ecuadorian embassy in London and they were married in March 2022 in Belmarsh prison.
She and Mr Assange have two children, born in 2017 and 2019.
The Australian government has expressed support for Mr Assange being returned to Australia but has stressed that Australia was unable to intervene in another country’s court processes.
Earlier this year Ms Assange addressed the Bring Julian Assange Home parliamentary group, which is led by independent MP Andrew Wilkie and includes representatives from the crossbench and all parties in parliament.
Wikileaks, headed by Mr Assange, published hundreds of thousands of classified American documents, including a video — titled Collateral Murder — depicting a 2007 US airstrike that killed journalists and civilians.
The United States Department of Justice (DoJ) accuses him of "one of the largest compromises of classified information" in the country's history, and the 18 charges he faces there carry a collective maximum sentence of 175 years.
The DoJ argues Mr Assange put American agents, along with Afghans and Iraqis working with them, at risk by publishing their unredacted names.
It says Mr Assange is being pursued for endangering lives, not for acting as a publisher, an argument that could potentially avoid any issues with the First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of speech, and that of the press.
Stella Assange (centre) at a protest in London in February against Julian Assange's continued imprisonment. Source: Getty / Dan Kitwood
“He'll be in that cell indefinitely unless he is released," Ms Assange told the National Press Club.
"If Julian is extradited, he'll be buried in the deepest, darkest hole of the US prison system, isolated forever, that is what is done to defendants in so-called national security cases, even before trial.
"A 175-year sentence is a living death sentence, a prospect so desperate that the English court found that it would drive him to take his own life rather than live forever in hell.
"We must do everything we can to ensure that Julian never, ever sets foot in a US prison, extradition in this case is a matter of life and death."
With additional reporting by Finn McHugh and the Australian Associated Press.
