Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese denounced US and UK's legal pursuit against journalist and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. He takes stand against attempts to extradite Australian to US ahead of court ruling next week.
Albanese said on Thursday that the country as a whole shared the view that "enough is enough".
On Wednesday a motion was introduced in parliament calling for an end to Assange’s prosecution so that he can return to his family in Australia. Backing the motion Albanese said, "This thing cannot just go on and on and on indefinitely".
Judges at London’s High Court are due to rule on Assange’s appeal against extradition to the United States at a hearing on February 20 and 21.
Assange, 52 year old Australian citizen has been for five years in London’s high-security Belmarsh Prison and battling against his extradition to the US, where he is wanted on criminal charges over the release of confidential military records and diplomatic cables in 2010.
Washington says the release of the documents had put lives in danger.
Assange was arrested after spending seven years in Ecuador’s embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he faced accusations of sexual assault, which were later dropped.
Assange supporters fear that he could essentially be "put behind bars for the rest of his life".
They said it would be a "terrible thing” for the notion of press freedom, in essence, “setting a precedent for those who’ve been tried under the Espionage Act to essentially be pawns in the system".
