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Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says the US president's feedback are encouraging.
United States President Joe Biden has stated he’s “contemplating” Australia's request to finish a decade-long effort to prosecute WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange over the discharge of categorized paperwork.
Australia's Parliament handed a movement in February calling for Assange's launch with the assist of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
Assange, an Australian citizen, has been held in the UK since 2019 as he fights extradition to the US to face espionage fees.
Assange spent seven years within the Ecuadorian embassy to keep away from extradition to Sweden, earlier than being despatched to Belmarsh jail in London, the place he confronted a sexual assault investigation.
Requested about Australia's request on Wednesday, Biden stated, “We’re contemplating it.”
Biden, who made the remarks whereas assembly with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Washington, DC, didn’t elaborate.
Albanese stated Biden's feedback had been encouraging and that the difficulty “must be delivered to some conclusion.”
“Mr. Assange has already paid an enormous value and sufficient is sufficient. In my very sturdy view nothing goes to be achieved by persevering with to imprison Mr. Assange and I’ve put this to the Australian Authorities's view,” Albanese advised the Australian Broadcasting Company.
Assange's spouse Stella referred to as on Biden to “do the precise factor” and drop the costs in a social media publish.
Assange, 52, has been convicted of 17 counts of espionage and one depend of laptop misuse over his function within the 2010 leak of categorized paperwork associated to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
If convicted, he faces as much as 175 years in jail.
Assange's prosecution has been extensively condemned by press freedom and human rights teams, together with Amnesty Worldwide and Reporters With out Borders.
The Excessive Court docket in London final month delayed a call on Assange's extradition till US officers assured him he wouldn’t face the dying penalty.
The court docket is anticipated to make a ultimate resolution on Assange's attraction on Could 20, after giving the US three weeks to make additional arguments within the case.