Supporters of imprisoned WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange have urged Australian ministers to push for his release when they meet with their U.S. counterparts.
Defence Minister Richard Marles and Foreign Minister Penny Wong will hold talks with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin in Brisbane on Friday as part of the annual AUSMIN meetings, with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also attending.
The brother of Julian Assange, Gabriel Shipton, said the talks were one of the last face-to-face meetings between the ministers before the 51-year-old faces extradition from the UK to the U.S.
“Julian is inches away from extradition to the USA,” Mr. Shipton said in a statement.
“The meeting between the secretary of state and the prime minister could be the last chance to put a stop to Julian’s nightmare.”
Assange has been held in prison in London since 2019 after thousands of documents were leaked in 2010 about U.S. operations in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
In 2021, a UK judge ruled Assange not to be extradited to the U.S. due to concerns for his mental health, but the decision was overturned on appeal.
While Mr. Albanese had raised the issue of Assange with U.S. President Joe Biden, Mr. Shipton said the case needed to be brought to attention at the AUSMIN talks.
“Eighty-eight per cent agree the Biden administration should drop the charges against Julian,” he said.
“Each day the U.S. administration ignores the Australian public on Julian’s freedom it becomes clearer and clearer Australia’s true standing in the alliance.”
U.S. ambassador to Australia, Caroline Kennedy, said she understood the concerns raised by Assange’s supporters.
“For Julian Assange, it means a lot that he has this kind of support, but we’re just going to have to see what happens,” she told ABC Radio on Friday.
“This has been raised at the highest levels of our government, but it is an ongoing legal case. So the Department of Justice is really in charge.”
