Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Thursday denounced the years-long US and British legal pursuit of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, saying “enough is enough”.
The country’s parliament passed a motion Wednesday with the prime minister’s support, calling for an end to 52-year-old Assange’s prosecution so that he can return to his family in Australia.
Assange, an Australian citizen, will go to London’s High Court next week, seeking leave to appeal against his extradition to the United States for trial on espionage charges.
“People will have a range of views about Mr Assange’s conduct,” Albanese told parliament. “But regardless of where people stand, this thing cannot just go on and on and on indefinitely.”
Australians from many sides of politics have a common view, he said, that “enough is enough”.
Albanese said he had raised Assange’s case “at the highest levels” in Britain and the United States.
The Australian government had a duty to lobby for its citizens, the prime minister said.
(Mick Tsikas / Associated Press)
He cited the case of Chinese-born Australian journalist Cheng Lei, released in October last year after more than three years’ detention in China on espionage charges.
Albanese also referred to diplomatic “successes” for Australians held in Vietnam and Myanmar.
Australian economist Sean Turnell was released from a Myanmar jail in November 2022 after being held for 650 days on allegations of spying and gun-running.
A Vietnamese dissident with Australian citizenship, Chau Van Kham, was freed from jail in Vietnam in July 2023 following his conviction on terrorism charges.
Australia should not interfere in the legal processes of other countries, Albanese said.
“But it is appropriate for us to put our very strong view that those countries need to take into account the need for this to be concluded.”
Assange has been held in the high-security Belmarsh Prison in southeast London since April 2019.
He was arrested after holing up for seven years in Ecuador’s London embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he faced accusations of sexual assault, later dropped.
US authorities want to put the Australian on trial for divulging US military secrets about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Assange’s legal team will be seeking permission to appeal his extradition to the United States at a hearing listed in London’s High Court for February 20 and 21.
He is accused of publishing some 700,000 confidential documents related to US military and diplomatic activities, starting in 2010.
