Albanese met with US President Joe Biden at the Quad meeting in Tokyo in late May, days after the federal election, but there was no indication that he had raised the issue of Assange during the their meeting.
A federal government source, who asked not to be named to discuss the matter, has confirmed to The Sun-Herald and The Sunday Age that Assange’s case has been raised with senior US officials.
Former Foreign Minister Bob Carr said talks on Assange’s release “will be governed by a sensitive and nuanced diplomacy of appropriate alliance between the partners”.
“I trust Prime Minister Albanese’s judgment on this, given his recent statement in which he warned against megaphone diplomacy and his comments last December,” he said.
But Carr predicted that “in the end, Americans can’t say no [to his release]as President Obama commuted Chelsea Manning’s conviction to expose the same war crime that Assange made known to the world. “
“The Yank has been commuted; the Australian is facing extradition and a cruel sentence. “
Foreign Minister Penny Wong said on Friday that “Assange’s case has been too long and should be closed. We will continue to express this view to the governments of the United Kingdom and the United States.”
Albanese is due to attend the NATO summit in Madrid later this month, which will also be attended by US President Joe Biden, although it is unclear whether he will raise the issue.
“The diplomatic assurances provided by the United States that Assange will not remain in isolation cannot be assumed at face value given the previous history.”
Agnes Callamard, Amnesty International
Assange’s wife, Stella Moris, attacked United Kingdom Home Secretary Priti Patel for approving the extradition.
“It was up to Priti Patel to do the right thing,” he said in a statement. “Instead, she will be remembered forever as an accomplice of the United States in her agenda to turn investigative journalism into a criminal enterprise.”
Former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd tweeted that he did not agree with the decision to approve the extradition, although he did not support Assange’s actions and “his reckless contempt for classified security information.” .
“But if Assange is to blame, so are the dozens of newspaper editors who have happily published their material.”
Labor MP Julian Hill said there could never be a legal solution to the case as it was inherently political and that “we should speak up for our Australian compatriot and call for these charges to be dropped and not extradited”.
Green Senator Jordon Steele-John said extradition to the United States would set a dangerous precedent for press freedom and called on the prime minister to pick up the phone from his British and American counterparts.
Independent MP Andrew Wilkie, chairman of the Bring Julian Assange Home parliamentary group, has called the UK’s decision a scandalous betrayal of the rule of law, freedom of the media and human rights.
“This issue is so deeply wrong on so many levels … the time is up for the new federal government to insinuate that it cares and then does nothing,” he said.
“The new Australian government must now be convicted of abandoning an Australian hero journalist at the very real prospect of spending the rest of his life rotting in a US prison.”
Amnesty International calls on the United Kingdom to refrain from extradition and the United States to withdraw all charges. Human Rights Organization Secretary-General Agnes Callamard says allowing the Australian to be sent to the United States to stand trial would put him at great risk.
Julian Assange’s supporters placed a large banner on a railing in front of London’s High Court last year. Credit: AP
“Assange faces a high risk of prolonged solitary confinement, which would violate the ban on torture or other ill-treatment,” Callamard said.
“The diplomatic assurances provided by the United States that Assange will not remain in isolation cannot be assumed at face value given the previous history.”
The adviser on the Australian campaign to free Mr Assange, Greg Barns SC, says the UK’s decision is not surprising given the approaches of the past.
“The UK does not consider extradition to be political when it is clear,” he told ABC News on Saturday.
He says further appeals to British courts could be based on media reports last year that the CIA had planned to assassinate the founder of WikiLeaks.
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“There is absolute validity to these matters … the real problem is whether we let this matter return to the judicial system for a couple more years or say there are important principles here.”
There has been a change of rhetoric on the issue of the new government and statements by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Mrs Wong had encouraged the campaign, Barns said.
“We are certainly demanding and hope that now is the time for Australia to get involved with its key allies in London and Washington and put an end to this.”