Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese expressed frustration at the United States' continuing efforts to extradite WikiLeaks founder and Australian citizen Julian Assange, saying: 'There is nothing to be served by his ongoing incarceration.'
Albanese’s comments Friday in an Australian Broadcasting Corp. interview appeared to escalate diplomatic pressure on the United States to drop the charges against the 51-year-old Assange, who has spent four years in Britain’s Belmarsh Prison fighting extradition to the United States.Albanese said Assange’s case had to be examined in terms of whether the time Assange had “effectively served” was in excess of what would be “reasonable” if the allegations against him were proved.
Assange has battled in British courts for years to avoid being sent to the U.S., where he faces 17 charges of espionage and one charge of computer misuse that stem from WikiLeaks’ publication of a huge trove of classified documents in 2010. Albanese said there was a “disconnect” between the U.S. treatment of Assange and Manning. Then-U.S. President Barack Obama commuted Manning’s 35-year sentence to seven years, which allowed her release in 2017.
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Australia PM: US effort to extradite Assange not worth itAustralia's prime minister has expressed frustration at the United States’ continuing efforts to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. An Australian citizen, Assange has spent four years in a British prison fighting extradition and seven years taking asylum in an embassy. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in an Australian media interview Friday that Assange's time served should be considered against the potential penalty in the U.S. case. Assange faces espionage charges over WikiLeaks’ publication of a trove of classified documents. Albanese declined to say whether he would raise Assange's case when he meets with President Joe Biden later this month in Sydney.
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