Mexico’s president says country renewed outdated offer of asylum for Wikileaks founder, wanted in US on a whole lot of prices.
Printed On 18 Jul 2022
Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has acknowledged he gave a letter to his US counterpart Joe Biden in defence of Julian Assange after the UK authorized the Wikileaks founder’s extradition to the US.
According to a reporter’s query during a recordsdata conference on Monday, Lopez Obrador acknowledged Mexico has renewed a outdated offer of asylum to Assange.
“I left a letter to the president about Assange, explaining that he failed to commit any vital crime, failed to motive any individual’s dying, failed to violate any human rights, and that he exercised his freedom, and that absorbing him would suggest a permanent affront to freedom of expression,” Lopez Obrador acknowledged.
“I also acknowledged that Mexico is offering protection and asylum to Julian Assange,” he acknowledged, adding that he has no longer yet heard abet from Biden.
The pattern comes after the UK final month authorized Assange’s extradition to the US to face felony prices related to WikiLeaks’ launch of confidential US navy recordsdata and diplomatic cables.
UK Dwelling Secretary Priti Patel’s explain of job acknowledged British courts had concluded the extradition wouldn’t be incompatible with Assange’s human rights, and that he might perchance well be treated precisely.
On July 1, Assange appealed his extradition to the US at the High Courtroom in London.
The 51-year-dilapidated, who used to be born in Australia, is wanted by US authorities on 18 counts, including a spying payment, pertaining to to WikiLeaks’ launch of sizable troves of confidential US navy recordsdata and diplomatic cables that Washington acknowledged had assign lives in trouble.
The Australian executive has been beneath mounting tension to intervene, however final month High Minister Anthony Albanese rejected calls for him to publicly query that Washington descend its prosecution of Assange.
Final week, Lopez Obrador met with Biden in Washington, DC, during which the Mexican president acknowledged he introduced up Assange’s case.
Lopez Obrador, usually referred to as AMLO, only within the near previous acknowledged the Statue of Liberty have to be dismantled and returned to France if Assange is imprisoned within the US.
Assange’s supporters, meanwhile, stammer the Wikileaks founder is an anti-institution hero who has been victimised on account of he exposed US wrongdoing in conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. They argue that his prosecution is a politically motivated assault on journalism and free speech.
“The combat to assign Assange is also the combat to assign press freedom and our First Modification rights,” DC Action for Assange and the Assange Defense Committee, US-based fully mostly groups, acknowledged in a letter thanking Lopez Obrador for his toughen final week.
“We agree with you that the prosecution of Mr Assange for publishing is a profound risk to journalism spherical the globe. We be pleased your consistent vocal toughen for these critical principles, core tenets of a functioning democracy,” they acknowledged.
Assange’s ethical troubles began in 2010 when Sweden sought his extradition from Britain over allegations of intercourse crimes. When he misplaced that case in 2012, he fled to the Ecuadorean embassy in London, the assign he spent seven years.
When he used to be eradicated in April 2019, he used to be jailed for breaching British bail stipulations though the Swedish case against him had been dropped. He has been battling extradition to the US since June 2019 and stays in jail.
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Al Jazeera and records companies