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Australian Prime Minister promises to take up Julian Assange's extradition case to US

Anthony Albanese intends to "engage appropriately" with the case

SYDNEY, June 20. /TASS/. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese promised to take up the case of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who faces 175 years in prison in the United States for revealing classified information, the head of government announced on Monday during a speech to reporters in Canberra.

According to Albanese, he intends to "engage appropriately" with the case". "I intend to lead a government that engages diplomatically and appropriately with our partners," the prime minister pointed out. He earlier noted that Assange "has already suffered enough."

As Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong noted, "Australia is not a party to Mr Assange’s case, nor can the Australian government intervene in the legal matters of another country, [but] <…> will continue to convey our expectations that Mr Assange is entitled to due process." "The Australian Government has been clear in our view that Mr Assange’s case has dragged on for too long and that it should be brought to a close. We will continue to express this view to the governments of the United Kingdom and United States," she emphasized, noting that lawyers still have ways to "appeal the decision to extradite" the Australian.

On Friday, a UK Home Office spokeswoman said that the head of the department, Priti Patel, had decided to extradite Assange to the United States following a review by both the Westminster Magistrates' Court and the London’s High Court.

WikiLeaks, in turn, noted that it would appeal Patel's decision to extradite Assange to the United States to the High Court in London. The organization stressed that the prosecution of the Australian "has always been a political matter".

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