MADRID, 29 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Secretary of State of the USA, Antony Blinken, has defended this Saturday the arguments of his country to prosecute the founder of the Wikileaks website, Julian Assange,
Speaking with her Australian counterpart, Penny Wong, during their meeting in Brisbane, Blinken insisted that the actions allegedly committed by Assange “endangered national security for the benefit of our adversaries and put the named sources at grave risk” in the leaks.
The United States has been trying for years to secure the extradition of Assange, an Australian-born British citizen, who is now running out of legal options to defend himself.
The US judiciary wants to try Assange on espionage charges and, if convicted, he faces up to 175 years in prison.
Wong, for his part, emphasized that Australia has no intention of interfering in a process that concerns other countries, but he did convey the feelings of a large part of the Australian population, who consider that the process is taking too long and the desire of the Australian government “is to finish as soon as possible.”
In response, Blinken limited himself to ensuring that the US understands “the sensitivity that this case entails” for the Australian population. “But it is important that our friends understand our concern about this situation,” she added.
Assange, 52, is accused of stealing and publishing secret material from US military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, thereby endangering the lives of US informants. Instead, Assange’s supporters see him as a journalist who exposed war crimes.
Since his arrest in 2019, Assange has been held at the high-security Belmarsh prison in London. He previously spent several years in the Ecuadorian embassy in London to avoid arrest.
Most recently, he saw an appeal against his extradition fail in London’s High Court. This decision must be reviewed and, if it is rejected again, the only option would be to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.
