Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese showed his support for a motion in parliament’s lower house in favor of bringing back WikiLeaks’ founder Julian Assange to Australia. This comes ahead of a hearing in London’s High Court next week on his extradition.
The motion, put forward by independent lawmaker Andrew Wilkie, was passed on Wednesday with 86 votes in favor and 42 against after receiving support from the Labor government. Most members of the conservative opposition coalition opposed the motion.
“(The motion) will send a powerful political signal to the British government and to the U.S. government,” Wilkie told parliament before the vote.
U.S. officials are seeking to extradite Assange from a British prison to the United States, where he is wanted on criminal charges related to WikiLeaks’ release of confidential U.S. military records and diplomatic cables.
Although Britain has given the green light for his extradition, Assange, an Australian citizen, has filed a possible final legal challenge to stop it. A public hearing is set to take place on Feb. 20-21, where two judges will review an earlier ruling that had denied Assange permission to appeal.
Wilkie mentioned that he would travel to Britain to attend next week’s hearings and stated, “Whether you worship or loathe Julian Assange, the matter has gone on long enough.” He told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.
Albanese has been pushing for the U.S. to drop the extradition requests and free Assange, expressing frustration for not yet finding a diplomatic solution.
Suffragettes of Assange argue that he has been wronged because he exposed U.S. misconduct and potential crimes, including in conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. The United States contends that the release of the classified documents jeopardized lives.
Australia’s Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus mentioned that Assange’s extradition was discussed in a meeting with his U.S. counterpart Merrick Garland in Washington the previous month.
“It is time this matter is brought to an end,” Dreyfus said in a statement, emphasizing the government’s clear stance on the Assange issue.
(Reporting by Renju Jose in Sydney; Editing by Jamie Freed)
