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US President Joe Biden has said that he is considering a request from Australia to drop the prosecution of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange (www.bbc.com)

submitted 5 months ago by tardigrada@beehaw.org to c/news@beehaw.org

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Cross posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/13074556

The country's parliament recently passed a measure - backed by PM Anthony Albanese - calling for the return of Mr Assange to his native Australia.

The US wants to extradite the 52-year-old from the UK on criminal charges over the leaking of military records.

Mr Assange denies the charges, saying the leaks were an act of journalism.

The president was asked about Australia's request on Wednesday and said: "We're considering it."

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[-] jarfil@beehaw.org 3 points 5 months ago

That's nice, but it's only a list of "currently presented" charges, with none of the "potentially other" charges.

Keep in mind that federal felony charges involving the death penalty, like treason (¹), have no statute of limitations. He could easily get extradited, found either not guilty, or that the crimes have prescribed, or pardoned... then charged with treason and executed.

(¹: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treason_laws_in_the_United_States )

[-] ebc@lemmy.ca 2 points 5 months ago

Treason is a crime you can only commit against your own country. The US can't accuse a non-US citizen of treason...

this post was submitted on 10 Apr 2024

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