Following the temporary suspension of Julian Assange’s extradition from a London prison to the United States, Australia’s prime minister demanded on Tuesday that the WikiLeaks founder be released from detention.
A court in the UK has allowed Assange to file an appeal against his extradition, thwarting Washington’s attempts to prosecute the 52-year-old Australian hacker for disclosing US military secrets.
After the decision, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese reiterated his demands that Assange’s “ongoing incarceration” serve “nothing” and that the investigation into him should stop.
“We continue to work very closely to achieve that outcome,” Albanese told reporters, while also declaring “enough is enough”.
Assange is permitted to file a limited appeal, which will examine whether the US court system will grant him free speech privileges due to his status as a foreigner.
In June 2022, the UK government gave Assange permission to be extradited.
After hiding out in Ecuador’s London embassy for seven years, he was taken into custody in April 2019 and placed in the high-security Belmarsh jail in London.
Albanese stated earlier this year that Assange’s prosecution “cannot just go on and on and on indefinitely” because of its seemingly never-ending nature.
The US government intends to prosecute Assange for disclosing US military intelligence during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
He is charged with disclosing around 700,000 private papers about US military and diplomatic operations beginning in 2010.
