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Updated July 19th, 2022 at 15:00 IST

Julian Assange 'did not commit any serious crime', avers Mexico Prez in letter to Biden

Mexico's President said on Monday that he told his American counterpart, Joe Biden, that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange “did not commit any serious crime”.

Reported by: Aanchal Nigam
Julian Assange
Image: AP | Image:self
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Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, on Monday, said that he told his American counterpart, Joe Biden, that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange “did not commit any serious crime”. Obrador conveyed his opinions about Assange to Biden on behalf of the WikiLeaks founder who is fighting extradition to the United States where he could face decades in jail for violating the US Espionage Act. 

However, while legal troubles continue to mount for Assange, Mexico’s leftist leader delivered a letter to US President when Obrador was visiting Washington last week. The Mexican President told reporters that in the letter to Biden he explained that the WikiLeaks founder did not commit any serious crime. Obrador said, “He did not cause the death of anyone, did not violate any human right and exercised his freedom”.

Obrador also said that jailing Julian Assange would amount to an “affront to freedom of expression” while noting that the Australian publisher was yet to receive a response from Biden. It is to be noted here that Assange can face up to 175 years in jail if found guilty in the US Espionage Act for publishing military and diplomatic files in 2010 pertaining to Iraq and Afghanistan wars. 

Just last month, the UK government gave a nod to Assange’s extradition to the US which prompted an appeal by WikiLeaks founder’s lawyers. 

Why Julian Assange could face decades in jail in US?

WikiLeaks founder, for several years, has tried to avoid a trial in the United States on charges related to WikiLeaks’ publication of a significant trove of classified documents in 2010.

The past decade has been significantly tumultuous for Assange, who set up WikiLeaks in 2006 as a platform for anonymous whistleblowers to share top-secret information and data. Even at the time of its founding, WikiLeaks and its founder, the now 50-year-old Assange drew divided responses with equal parts of criticism and encouragement. For many, while the platform represented ground-breaking journalism, the others flagged national security concerns budded from the website.

WikiLeaks was active for 15 years and in that time period, numerous troves of documents, data and information dumps, were released. Some of the most impactful publications include 400,000 secret military reports relating to the war in Iraq and 90,000 documents on Afghanistan’s conflict.

However, in 2010, the platform ended up releasing what is now infamously called ‘Collateral Murder’ video, showing soldiers in the United States Apache helicopter killing a dozen people on the ground in Iraq’s Baghdad including two journalists of an international news agency.

(Image: AP)

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Published July 19th, 2022 at 15:00 IST

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