“We’ve made it very clear that the continued prosecution of Julian Assange is not the action of a friend of Australia,” said Greens Senator David Shoebridge,who added that extradition would be “a blow to the relationship between Australia and the United States”.
“When you look at the charges that he faces,he’s effectively been charged with being a journalist.
“He has shared information which was gathered by a third party.
“Bradley Chelsea Manning has already been prosecuted for that and is already free. Yet,the journalist who shared the information has been hounded across the earth by the US administration.”
Shoebridge was joined in Washington by Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce,Liberal senator Alex Antic,Labor MP Tony Zappia,independent MP Monique Ryan and fellow Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson.
The trip was intended to raise the profile of Assange’s plight in the weeks leading up to Prime Minister AnthonyAlbanese’s first prime ministerial trip to Washington next month,where he will be granted a state dinner by US President Joe Biden.