Wikileaks founder Assange's wife appeals to US President for clemency
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Mrs Stella Assange, who is a lawyer, said her husband could be extradited within weeks.
PHOTO: AFP
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GENEVA - The wife of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, who is petitioning the British government’s decision to extradite him to the United States, on Monday appealed for clemency from the US President.
The Australian publisher is the object of a US extradition request to face trial
“(President Joe) Biden could end this any time. It’s not in the administration’s interests for Julian to be tried during an election period,” said Mrs Stella Assange while speaking to the Geneva Press Club.
“The UK is... giving off the signals that it is kind of accelerating and wants Julian extradited. So Julian could very well be extradited by the end of the summer,” she said. “The Biden administration would have to deal with that and I don’t think that’s in its interest.”
Assange, 52, is being prosecuted in the US for having published some 700,000 confidential documents related to military and diplomatic activities, starting in 2010.
He could face decades in prison, and his supporters portray him as a martyr for press freedom.
Assange was arrested by British police in 2019 after spending seven years holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden where he faced accusations of sexual assault.
He has been held for the last four years in the high security prison of Belmarsh, in east London.
“The smart thing” for Mr Biden to do “would be to just stop it and end it”, Mrs Assange said.
The issue of his extradition is a “Trump-era legacy” and represents “a threat” to democracy and the press, she told AFP.
Mrs Assange, who is a lawyer, said he could be extradited within weeks. The British government agreed in June 2022 to his extradition but Assange has appealed.
During the press conference, his wife said that the appeal had been rejected a month ago but a new petition for review has been filed.
“There’s one last chance,” she said.
If the application is successful, the case could go to a public hearing in front of two new High Court judges.
If not, the European Court of Human Rights could be the last option for Assange to evade his extradition.
According to his wife, his health is “in decline” after having suffered a “mini-stroke” in 2021. AFP
