USA, no extradition for Assange? Biden opens, charges may be dropped –

“We are evaluating it.” A new hope for Julian Assange: Joe Biden responded thus, during the ceremony with which he welcomed the Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, to the question shouted by a journalist regarding Australia’s request to the United States to end the criminal action against of Julian Assange, for whom there have been several new demonstrations of solidarity in recent weeks. When the issue was raised last summer, during a meeting of the foreign and defense ministers of the two countries, the United States did not accept it, claiming, it was reported at the time, that the founder of Wikileaks, by disseminating the secret documents relating to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, had risked causing very serious damage to US national security.

Last February, the Australian Parliament approved a motion asking the United States and the United Kingdom – where Assange has been detained since 2019, after having remained a refugee for 7 years in the Ecuadorian embassy which had granted him asylum – to release the founder of Wikileaks, who is an Australian citizen, from prison, allowing him to return to his homeland. The motion was supported by Labor Prime Minister Anthony Albanese who, since taking office in 2022, has been calling for the Assange affair to reach a “conclusion”, and raised the issue directly with Biden during his visit to Washington last October. Biden’s words come after, on March 26, the High Court of London granted Assange the possibility of a further appeal against extradition to the United States, setting the new hearing for May 20. Furthermore, Washington was asked to present within three weeks new guarantees that, in the event of extradition, the rights of the journalist accused of espionage will be respected and that, in particular, he will not risk the death penalty.