In 2010, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange leaked 251,000 confidential cables from the US State Department disclosing corruption, diplomatic scandals and spy affairs on an international scale, now known as “Cable Gate”.
The US government launched a criminal investigation into WikiLeaks shortly after, ultimately forcing the Australian activist to seek asylum at the Ecuadorian Embassy in the UK in 2012. Their grip fastened in 2019 when he was arrested on a US warrant, and taken to a high-security British prison where he has remained for the last three and a half years in harsh conditions.
The US is looking to extradite him to face charges carrying a maximum sentence of 175 years over Cable Gate but with over twelve years passed, calls are mounting for the charges to be dropped, including from Australian PM Anthony Albanese.
In this particular case, there is no timeline, but one would’ve expected that given the urgency of what the Prime Minister’s saying, is that this is a matter that could be resolved early this year.
Greg Barns SC, Senior Counsel and Adviser for the Australian Assange Campaign
Greg Barns SC joins us on today’s Briefing to tell us why Assange’s supporters hope he could be out in the first half of this year.
Click the link below to listen now.