THE MOTHER OF Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is putting pressure on the Australian government to support her son who could be facing extradition from Britain to Sweden on sex charges.
Christine Assange will be holding a media conference outside the offices of Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd on Friday where she will call on him to act on promises he has previously made regarding her son, according to the Australian Associated Press.
Supporters of Julian Assange are today gathering in their hundreds in Brisbane to challenge the government saying that they have failed to properly support the Australian whistleblower. Brisbane Wikileaks Defence member Rebecca Barrigos said:
The protest … will be important, both as a political challenge to the Gillard government which has failed to extend support to Assange and a morale boost to both Assange and Bradley Manning, the young US soldier jailed for releasing the US Embassy cables.
Assange’s mother claims that the Foreign Minister and former Premier Kevin Rudd had promised to protect her son’s legal rights but now says he has “done nothing”. She said:
He’s made statements that Julian had done no wrong as far as he could see, legally, in the fact that hadn’t breached any US or Australian legislation, had not broken any laws.
Meanwhile, the extradition hearing in London yesterday heard from Assange’s Swedish lawyer Bjorn Hurtig, who said he had seen dozens of text messages from one of the women who accuses Assange of rape.
He claimed that in the messages one of the accusers, known only as Miss W, spoke of getting revenge on the Wikileaks founder and making money by “giving him a bad name” according to The Daily Telegraph.
The hearing will resume at Belmarsh magistrates court in London on Friday.
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