Security News > 2021 > February > No joy for Julian Assange as Uncle Sam confirms it will keep pushing for WikiLeaker's extradition to America

The US Dept of Justice will continue pushing for the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, a spokesperson confirmed on Wednesday.

The decision by prosecutors, working under President Joe Biden, to press on also ignores an appeal made at the start of the week by a coalition of civil-liberties and human-rights groups, who urged the new commander-in-chief to drop the effort to drag Assange to America to face trial after obtaining and distributing classified material, most notably a huge cache of American military and diplomatic documents.

Last month, Westminster Magistrates' Court ruled that, despite there being no legal obstacles to Assange being extradited to the US for trial, he was a suicide risk and therefore should not be shipped out.

The Obama White House had been wary about prosecuting Assange due to free speech concerns; the Trump regime was less concerned and pushed hard to get Assange over the Atlantic.

Assange is an Australian citizen though he was in London in December 2010 when an international arrest warrant was issued for him by Swedish police over allegations he had sexually assaulted two women - charges his supporters claimed were a ploy to get him arrested and extradited to Sweden, at which point the US government would then apply to have him sent to America for trial.

Assange gave himself up to the British police and went through a Swedish extradition process which he lost and repeatedly appealed.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2021/02/10/julian_assange_dept_justice/