Australian PM Says He Made No Requests to Biden Over Potential Assange Release

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese did not ask US President Joe Biden to facilitate the release of Australian journalist and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange during his visit to Washington, saying the issue does not necessarily require the president's intervention.

"Joe Biden doesn't interfere with the Department of Justice — Joe Biden is a president who understands the separation of the judicial system from the political system. That's an important principle," Albanese told Australian media.

The prime minister said it was time to bring the matter to a conclusion, but "not necessarily" through a presidential intervention, according to the report.

Since April 2019, Assange has been held in London's high-security Belmarsh prison while he faces prosecution in the United States under the Espionage Act.

If convicted, the WikiLeaks founder could face 175 years in prison. In December 2022, he appealed to the European Court of Human Rights to fight his extradition.

WikiLeaks was founded by Assange in 2006, but rose to prominence in 2010 when it began publishing large-scale leaks of classified government information, including from the US.