Australia Solution looms in the long tug-of-war over Wikileaks founder Assange
In the years of legal wrangling over Wikileaks founder Julian Assange's extradition from the UK to the US, a surprising solution is emerging. Assange has reached an agreement with the US Department of Justice, according to which he will plead guilty in part to the espionage scandal and in return will be spared further imprisonment in the USA, according to court documents published on Monday evening (local time). However, a court still has to approve the agreement. According to the plans, Assange is to appear before a court in a remote US territory as early as this Wednesday: the Mariana Islands.
25.06.2024, 02:24
SDA
The archipelago is located in the Western Pacific, north of Assange's home country Australia, and is under US jurisdiction. A letter from the US Department of Justice states that Assange is expected to plead guilty to conspiracy to unlawfully obtain and distribute classified documents at the court hearing there. He is then expected to travel on to Australia. According to US media, Assange is to be sentenced to a good five years in prison - which he has already served in the UK.
The US government accuses him of stealing and publishing secret material from military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan with whistleblower Chelsea Manning, thereby endangering the lives of US whistleblowers. Assange's supporters, on the other hand, see him as being targeted by the Washington justice system for exposing US war crimes. If convicted without an agreement with the prosecution, Assange could face up to 175 years in prison for espionage.
Assange has been in Belmarsh high-security prison in London for around five years. Prior to his arrest in April 2019, he had spent seven years in the Ecuadorian embassy in London evading law enforcement authorities. They had initially targeted him for rape allegations in Sweden. However, these charges were later dropped due to a lack of evidence. He is now in prison without a conviction. Human rights organizations, journalists' associations, artists and politicians have long been calling for Assange's immediate release.
Assange recently lodged an appeal against his extradition from the UK to the USA. The High Court in London was supposed to hear the case in July. The High Court had partially granted a corresponding application by Assange in May, thereby averting an immediate transfer of the 52-year-old to the USA.
The Australian government had also campaigned for the release of its citizen. US President Joe Biden recently raised some hope in this direction. When asked whether the US would consider an Australian request to drop the prosecution against Assange, he said: "We are considering it."
