LONDON — Julian Assange’s wife said Thursday that her husband’s trial “could be moving in the right direction” after President Joe Biden confirmed the United States could drop charges against the imprisoned WikiLeaks founder.
It came as supporters in several cities gathered to demand Assange’s release, on the fifth anniversary of his incarceration at London’s high-security Belmarsh prison.
Biden said Wednesday his administration was “considering” a request from Australia to abandon a decade-long U.S. effort to prosecute Assange for releasing a trove of classified U.S. documents. The proposal would see Assange, an Australian citizen, return home rather than being sent to the United States to face espionage charges.
Officials did not provide further details, but Stella Assange said the comments were “a good sign.”
“It looks like things might be moving in the right direction,” she told the BBC, saying the indictment was “a legacy of Trump and Joe Biden really should have dropped it from the start.” first day “.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the comment was encouraging.
“Mr Assange has already paid a significant price and that is enough,” Albanese told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.
Assange was indicted on 17 counts of espionage and one count of misuse of a computer following the publication of classified US documents on his website almost 15 years ago. US prosecutors say Assange, 52, encouraged and aided US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to steal diplomatic cables and military files released by WikiLeaks, putting lives at risk.
Australia argues that there is a disconnect between the United States’ treatment of Assange and that of Manning. Then-US President Barack Obama commuted Manning’s 35-year prison sentence to seven years, leading to his release in 2017.
Assange’s supporters say he is a First Amendment-protected journalist who exposed wrongdoing by the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Assange has been in prison since 2019 while fighting extradition, having previously spent seven years holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London to avoid being sent to Sweden over allegations of rape and sexual assault .
The relationship between Assange and his hosts eventually deteriorated and he was expelled from the embassy in April 2019. British police immediately arrested him and imprisoned him in Belmarsh for breaching bail in 2012.
The British government signed an extradition order in 2022, but a British court ruled last month that Assange cannot be sent to the United States unless American authorities guarantee he will not be sentenced to dead.
A new hearing in this case is scheduled for May 20.
Assange was too ill to attend his final hearings. Stella Assange said her husband’s health continues to deteriorate in prison and she fears he will die behind bars.
WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Kristinn Hrafnsson said the WikiLeaks founder saw Biden’s comments as a “ray of hope.”
Hrafnsson, who visited Belmarsh prison on Thursday, said Assange was “resilient” but “not in good condition”.
“What keeps him alive is his family and the tremendous outside support,” he said.
ABC News
