Biden ‘considering’ Australian request to drop case against Assange

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says US president’s comments encouraging.

United States President Joe Biden has said he is “considering” a request by Australia to end the decade-long push to prosecute WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange over the release of troves of classified documents.

Australia’s parliament in February passed a motion calling for the release of Assange with the backing of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

Assange, an Australian citizen, has been held in the United Kingdom since 2019 as he fights extradition to the US to face espionage charges.

Before he was remanded at Belmarsh Prison in London, Assange spent seven years holed up in the Ecuadoran Embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he faced a since-abandoned sexual assault investigation.

Asked about Australia’s request on Wednesday, Biden said, “We’re considering it.”