Unsubstantiated of course, but sharing in the interests of maintaining a balanced diet (or at least having something to chew on):
Cominiere case at ICC won't be decided until late 2024 / early 2025 if no settlement. Felix might not be president in 7 weeks. Tick fucking tock.
Also quiet diplomacy for the L imo
Prime minister pushed back on idea of US president personally stepping in, but Gabriel Shipton calls prosecution βentirely politicalβ
www.theguardian.com
Julian Assangeβs brother urges Anthony Albanese to βup the anteβ over WikiLeaks founderβs case
Julian Assangeβs brother has urged the Australian government to βup the anteβ after the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, confirmed he raised the WikiLeaks founderβs case with Joe Biden last week.
Assangeβs brother, Gabriel Shipton, told Guardian Australia: βIf his government can get back Cheng Lei from China, why is he so impotent when it comes to Julian and the USA?β
Assange remains in Belmarsh prison in London as he fights a US attempt to extradite him to face charges β including under the Espionage Act. The charges are in connection with the publication of hundreds of thousands of leaked documents about the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, as well as diplomatic cables, in 2010 and 2011.
Speaking on the ABCβs Insiders program, Albanese reiterated his position that βenough is enough β it is time that this issue was brought to a conclusionβ.
Albanese said he had βraised the issue of Julian Assange with the administration on all of the occasions in which Iβve met members of the administrationβ, including with Biden during meetings in Washington DC last week.
But Albanese played down the idea of the US president personally stepping in to order the case be dropped.
βJoe Biden doesnβt interfere with the Department of Justice,β Albanese said. βJoe Biden is a president who understands the separation of the judicial system from the political system. Thatβs an important principle.β
Asked whether that meant it was time for Assange to enter into a plea deal, Albanese said Australian officials were βworking very hard to achieve an outcome which is consistent with the position that Iβve putβ.
Shipton said the US presidentβs rhetoric about not influencing the Department of Justice (DoJ) was not surprising βgiven the number of prosecutions against Bidenβs main political opponentβ, Donald Trump.
But Shipton said Assangeβs prosecution was βunique and a novel use of the law developed during the Trump administrationβ and was βentirely politicalβ.
βUnwinding it would be a restoration of DoJ independence,β Shipton said.
Shipton noted the governmentβs recent success in securing the release of Cheng, an Australian journalist after more than three years of detention in China. βItβs time for the prime minister to up the ante,β he said.
Greg Barns SC, adviser to the Assange campaign, said the efforts to reach a breakthrough were not solely focused on Biden but also the attorney general, Merrick Garland. The US House of Representatives and Senate were also a focus of lobbying.
βItβs not a one-pronged approach,β Barns said.
βWhen youβve got an extradition matter, particularly when itβs highly political, you work at a number of levels.
βThe president has the power to pardon, including in circumstances where a person hasnβt been tried and convicted, so at the end of the day there are powers that a president can use but there are other powers that an attorney general has.β
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has previously pushed back at the Australian governmentβs complaints that the pursuit of Assange had dragged on too long.
After talks in Brisbane in July, Blinken said it was βvery importantβ for βour friendsβ in Australia to understand the US concerns about Assangeβs βalleged role in one of the largest compromises of classified information in the history of our countryβ.
Assangeβs supporters argue that it was in the public interest to publish information about the Afghanistan and Iraq wars and say his prosecution sets a bad precedent for press freedom.
Last month more than 60 Australian federal politicians explicitly called on the DoJ to drop the prosecution, warning of βa sharp and sustained outcry in Australiaβ if the WikiLeaks founder was extradited.
A small cross-party delegation then flew to Washington DC in late September to lobby Biden administration officials and US lawmakers in the lead-up to Albaneseβs visit.