US President Joe Biden has mentioned that he’s considering a request from Australia to drop the prosecution of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

The nation’s parliament lately handed a measure – backed by PM Anthony Albanese – calling for the return of Mr Assange to his native Australia.

The US desires to extradite the 52-year-old from the UK on legal charges over the leaking of army information.

Mr Assange denies the charges, saying the leaks have been an act of journalism.

The president was requested about Australia’s request on Wednesday and mentioned: “We’re considering it.”

The measure handed the Australian parliament in February. Mr Albanese advised MPs: “People will have a range of views about Mr Assange’s conduct… But regardless of where people stand, this thing cannot just go on and on and on indefinitely.”

Mr Albanese on Thursday mentioned Mr Biden’s feedback have been “encouraging” and he was “increasingly optimistic about an outcome”.

“We want Mr Assange to be able to return home,” he advised Sky News Australia.

Mr Assange, 52, is combating extradition within the UK courts.

The extradition was placed on maintain in March after London’s High Court mentioned the United States should present assurances he wouldn’t face the demise penalty.

The High Court is due to consider any responses from the US authorities on the finish of May.

In a put up on Twitter/X, directed at Mr Biden, Mr Assange’s spouse Stella mentioned: “Do the right thing. Drop the charges.”

Kristinn Hrafnsson, the present editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks, mentioned that it was “not too late” for the president to cease the extradition try, which he mentioned was a “politically motivated act” by Mr Biden’s predecessor.

US prosecutors need to attempt the Wikileaks founder on 18 counts, nearly all below the Espionage Act, over the discharge of confidential US army information and diplomatic messages relating to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Mr Assange based the Wikileaks web site in 2006. It claims to have revealed greater than ten million paperwork, together with many confidential or restricted official studies associated to warfare, spying and corruption.

In 2010, it launched a video from a US army helicopter which confirmed civilians being killed within the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

These instructed that the US army had killed a whole bunch of civilians in unreported incidents through the warfare in Afghanistan.

Manning leaked the recordsdata to Wikileaks in 2010. She was later jailed for 35 years, however former President Barack Obama commuted her sentence in 2017.

The US Department of Justice referred to as the leaks “one of the largest compromises of classified information in the history of the United States”.

Mr Assange has been in Belmarsh jail in London for the previous 5 years pending a variety of authorized challenges.

Before that he had taken refuge within the Ecuadorian embassy for seven years.

He initially confronted a Swedish arrest warrant accusing him of getting raped one lady and sexually assaulted one other. He denied the claims.

In 2019 the Swedish authorities dropped the case, after he had been indicted on the US charges, saying an excessive amount of time had handed for the reason that authentic criticism.