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Lewis Whyld/PA Wire
Wikileaks

Assange: Only David Cameron can stop the US from charging me

A welcome Christmas present for the British prime minister: a plea from the WikiLeaks founder to stop him being charged.

WIKILEAKS FOUNDER Julian Assange has expressed his confidence that he will not be extradited to the United States from Britain – saying that if a request was made, it would be up to David Cameron himself to approve it.

Speaking to the Guardian, Assange said that it would be “politically impossible” for Britain to bow to any request from Washington to send Assange there to face charges in relation to WikiLeaks’ activities.

If such a request was to be made, Britain’s government – and David Cameron in particular – would have to acknowledge the greater public support for WikiLeaks’ activities in Britain, and refuse such a request.

“It’s all a matter of politics. We can presume there will be an attempt to influence UK political opinion, and to influence the perception of our standing as a moral actor,” Assange said.

Assange and his lawyers have previous shared their belief that the current allegations of sexual misconduct against him in Sweden would lead to a ‘show trial’ and be an excuse for Sweden to extradite him to the United States.

The charges in Sweden were part of a “smear campaign”, he had said.

Many senior political figures in the United States have demanded that WikiLeaks face criminal charges there for releasing the current batch of diplomatic cables, as well as the US military’s classified logs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Read more at the Guardian >