{"id":33406,"date":"2020-02-19T14:57:28","date_gmt":"2020-02-19T14:57:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/packetstormsecurity.com\/news\/view\/30952\/Australian-MPs-Call-On-UK-To-Block-US-Assange-Extradition.html"},"modified":"2020-02-19T14:57:28","modified_gmt":"2020-02-19T14:57:28","slug":"australian-mps-call-on-uk-to-block-us-assange-extradition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/australian-mps-call-on-uk-to-block-us-assange-extradition\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian MPs Call On UK To Block US Assange Extradition"},"content":{"rendered":"

Boris Johnson should block attempts to extradite Julian Assange<\/a> to the US, say two Australian MPs who visited the Wikileaks founder in prison, describing him afterwards as \u201ca man under enormous pressure\u201d and whose health and mental health had deteriorated.<\/p>\n

George Christensen, a Liberal National MP for the ruling party in Australia told a press conference outside the gates of Belmarsh prison that he knew of information, which would come to light during the start of the extradition hearing next week, that would make people in Australia \u201csit up and worry\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cI think that now is the time that the government that I am a part of needs to be standing up and saying to the UK and the US: \u2018Enough is enough leave that bloke alone and let him come home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andrew Wilkie, an independent federal MP and the co-chair of the Bring Julian Assange Home parliamentary group, who joined Christensen in London, told a press conference in London on Tuesday morning that the extradition of Assange, who has been charged by the US with conspiring to hack into a secret Pentagon computer network, would set a dangerous precedent.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will establish a precedent that if you are a journalist who does anything that offends any government in the world then you face the very real prospect of being extradited to that country,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is a political case and what is at stake is not just the life of Julian Assange. It is about the future of journalism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilkie said that Assange had \u201cdone the right thing\u201d by publishing secret video in 2010 showing US air crew<\/a> falsely claiming to have encountered a firefight in Baghdad and then laughing at the dead after launching an airstrike that killed a dozen people, including two Iraqis working for the Reuters news agency.<\/p>\n

Speaking after he and Christensen had spent a half an hour with Assange, who they said had asked about his family and had been worried about the impact of Australia\u2019s bushfires, he said: \u201cHe faces charges of espionage and computer hacking. If he is convicted of those charges he faces up to 175 years in prison, in a US federal prison. It\u2019s a life sentence and could almost be said to be a death sentence. Why wouldn\u2019t you be in there feeling under enormous pressure. That helps to explain why he is in the state that he is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Assange is no longer being kept in solitary confinement and his health is improving, WikiLeaks said on Tuesday. WikiLeaks<\/a> spokesperson Kristinn Hrafnsson said he had been moved from solitary confinement in the medical wing to a different part of the prison with 40 other inmates after complaints from his legal team and prisoners, who had petitioned the governor.<\/p>\n

Christensen said he had sent a letter to Johnson in which he noted that the prime minister had recently admitted that Britain\u2019s extradition treaty with the US was \u201cimbalanced\u201d following the rejection of an extradition request for Anne Sacoolas, the<\/a> woman accused of causing the the death of motorcyclist Harry Dunn.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Wilkie<\/div>\n

Wilkie and Christensen attend a news conference in London on Tuesday. Photograph: Reuters<\/p>\n

Christensen said: \u201cI am a big fan of Trump, I am a big fan of Bojo [Boris Johnson] but I\u2019ll tell you what I value more: free speech,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are a lot of Australians on the right and left who think that Julian Assange is a rat bag, that I am a rat bag, but that he should be brought home.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope that Boris Johnson withdraws this case that is before the courts,\u201d he said. \u201cThere is a problem here \u2026 What if it was a British journalist or an outspoken British citizen who went on holiday to another country that has an extradition treaty with China, and China wanted to extradite that British citizen?\u201d<\/p>\n