US President Biden considering Australia's request to drop Julian Assange's prosecution

United States (US) President Joe Biden said on Wednesday (Apr 10) that he was considering Australia's request to drop the prosecution of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. "We are considering it," President Biden told a reporter on being asked about Australia's request to end Assange's prosecution. Assange, 52, is an Australian editor who gained thereputation of a sophisticated computer programmer.

Assange launched the Wikileaks website in 2006, and it gained prominence in April 2010 when it published a classified video showing a 2007 US helicopter attack that killed a dozen people in Iraq's capital Baghdad. The website has released thousands of classified US military documents on the war in Afghanistan, and hundreds of thousands of US secret files on the Iraq war.

Assange is battling extradition from the United Kingdom (UK) to the US, where he is wanted on criminal charges over the release of confidential American military records and diplomatic cables. If extradited, the 52-year-old faces a sentence of up to 175 years in a maximum security prison.

'Encouraging comment from Biden'

In February, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese backed a parliamentary motion calling for the return of Assange. "This is an encouraging comment from President Biden," Albanese told ABC television on Thursday.

"I believe this must be brought to a conclusion and that Mr Assange has already paid a significant price, and enough is enough," he added. The Australian PM also said that there was nothing to be gained by Assange's continued incarceration.

Assange's lawyer Barry Pollack also said that the US president's commentwas encouraging. "It is encouraging that President Biden has confirmed that the United States is considering dropping its case against Julian Assange," Pollack told the news agency Reuters.

(With inputs from agencies)