The Associated Press said Australia’s centre-left Labor government has argued since winning elections last year that the U.S. should drop its charges against Assange. Assange, who opposes extradition to the US, has spent four years in a British prison.
In this regard, Blinken recently confirmed that he discussed the issue of Assange in his annual meeting with Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong (Penny Wong). Huang Yingxian said that the prosecution of Assange had dragged on for too long, and Australia hoped that the United States would drop the charges.
Blinken responded: “I understand Australia’s concerns and perceptions. Assange is being prosecuted in the United States for a very serious criminal offense in connection with one of the worst leaks of classified information in our country’s history.”
U.S. prosecutors have accused Assange of helping U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning steal classified U.S. documents.
Assange founded the “WikiLeaks” website in 2006, and in 2010 released hundreds of thousands of classified U.S. government diplomatic and military documents stolen by Manning. In 2019, the U.S. Department of Justice charged Assange with 17 counts of espionage and one count of improper use of a computer.
Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison in 2013. In January 2017, former U.S. President Barack Obama commuted Manning’s sentence before leaving office, reducing his remaining sentence from 28 years to 4 months, which brought forward the date of his release from 2045 to May 2017.
It is reported that once Assange is extradited to the United States and found guilty, he will be sentenced to a maximum of 175 years in prison. Australia argues that the US has been “inconsistent” in its treatment of Assange and Manning.
The British “Guardian” reported that Blinken’s statement would be seen as a blow to the international community’s efforts to rescue Assange.
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2023-08-01 07:45:19
