Australian PM says he is ‘frustrated’ by continued detention of Julian Assange

Published:

May 6, 2023 10:52 GMT

“There is nothing to be gained by your continued imprisonment,” Anthony Albanese said.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese he pointed this Friday in an interview with Australian media that he “shares the frustration” over the continued detention of Julian Assange and is concerned about his health.

“I can do no more than make it very clear where I stand, and the US Administration is clearly aware that this is the position of the Australian Government. […] There is nothing to be gained by their continued imprisonment,” Albanese said. “Enough is enough, this needs to be brought to fruition, it needs to be fixed,” he added.

The Assange case

Julian Assange has been imprisoned since April 2019 in the Belmarsh UK maximum security prisonwhere he was detained after the then president of Ecuador, Lenín Moreno, allowed his arrest at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he had remained in asylum status for 7 years, since June 2012.

Assange is charged in the US for the publication of hundreds of thousands of pages of secret military documents and confidential diplomatic cables on the activities of that country in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which were disseminated by its WikiLeaks portal. they ask for him 175 years in prison.

In June 2022, The British Justice approved his extradition to the US, a decision that was validated by the UK government. The measure, for the moment, has not been finalized due to the appeal presented by Assange, in the midst of the demands for justice by the international community and in favor of her release.