Exclusive: A
group of 10 MPs from across the political spectrum have joined forces
to form a Parliamentary Working Group focused on bringing home Wikileaks
founder Julian Assange.
LNP
member George Christensen and independent Andrew Wilkie have agreed to
be co-chairs and have put forward the proposed group for approval from
the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of
Representatives.
It is understood the group includes Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce, members of the Labor Party and the cross bench.
He believes people who may have been wary of Assange because of the rape allegations levelled against him will change their view when they know what is happening.
He said Assange has not be charged with rape and the attempts
to extradite him to the US havenothing to do with those allegations.
Assange, 48, faces 18 counts in the US including conspiring to hack government computers and violating an espionage law.
Assange attracted the attention of the US when Wikileaks published hundreds of thousands of secret US documents and video about the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
But Assange had been told he could leave Sweden, there are no charges and there has been no extradition case to Sweden.
He was granted asylum in the Ecuadorean embassy in London in 2012 on the basis that he risked human rights abuses at the hands of the United States.
He was dragged out of the Ecuadorean Embassy earlier this year and is being held on remand ahead of the extradition hearing to the US.
.
are quite naive and misunderstand what is going on.”
“If the United States get their way, he will probably be tried in secret, in a kangaroo court and given life in jail.”
The formation of the group comes ahead of Assange’s scheduled court appearance in London on Monday and calls for the Federal Government to intervene on Assange’s behalf.
Assange is being detained in one of Britain’s toughest prisons Belmarsh and his legal team have warned his health is deteriorating. A full extradition hearing is not expected to go ahead until February.
Mr Barnes said it is the first time that the US has sought to use its laws to prosecute a person who did not commit an act in a US jurisdiction or have any links to the US.
“It is a dangerous step and it means that any journalist or person who publishes material deemed to be classified under US espionage laws could be prosecuted irrespective of having any link to the US.”
“It is not something that has been even been considered by the Five Eyes before,” he said.
“I think it would be highly unlikely that Australia would seek to prosecute someone say in Belgium for publishing something in that country.”
Businessman Dick Smith has also come out swinging over what he has called “outrageous” attempts by the US Government to extradite Julian Assange using laws which give “universal jurisdiction over every person on earth ”.
Mr Smith has written to the US Ambassador to Australia, Arthur Culvahouse Jr, warning the relationship with Australia will be damaged if the US persists in making an Aussie a “scapegoat” for the security failures of its own government.
“It is unfair and wrong to pick on, blame and lock up an Australian because the Americans couldn’t keep their own secrets, secret,” said Mr Smith.
“Mr Assange has only been successful in publishing US documents and gaining unauthorised access because those in charge of keeping that information confidential were not competent.”
“He has
done them a favour — if Julian Assange sitting at is kitchen bench can
break into US systems then anyone can — like the Russians.”
Originally published as Aussie MPs join forces to bring home Assange
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