Australian-born WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has been arrested by the UK police after spending years in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, will receive no more support from Australian authorities than any other Australian national would in this situation, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Friday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th April, 2019) Australian-born WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has been arrested by the UK police after spending years in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, will receive no more support from Australian authorities than any other Australian national would in this situation, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Friday.
Assange was arrested on Thursday after Ecuador terminated his political asylum and invited the UK police to take the WikiLeaks founder away. He is now facing extradition to the United States where he is accused of helping US Army whistleblower Chelsea Manning break into a US government computer containing classified data.
"When Australians travel overseas and they find themselves in difficulties with the law, well they face the judicial systems of those countries ... We support Australians in those cases by providing consular assistance, so Mr. Assange will get the same support any other Australian would in these circumstances, he is not ... going to be given any special treatment," the prime minister told the ABC news.
Assange took refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London in 2012 after the United Kingdom granted his extradition to Sweden, where the whistleblower was accused of sexual offenses, which he denies and calls politically motivated. The charges were dropped a few years back, but the Swedish prosecution said after Assange's arrest on Thursday that it was mulling over the possibility of reopening the case.
