Australia’s Parliament has overwhelmingly approved a motion calling for the release of imprisoned WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is an Australian citizen. The vote came ahead of a critical appeal hearing before the British High Court of Justice in London next week. Supporters of the resolution included Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who has urged the United States to drop its request to extradite Assange, who faces up to 175 years in prison for publishing classified documents exposing U.S. war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. Assange has been held in London’s infamous Belmarsh Prison since 2019 awaiting possible extradition to the U.S. Prior to that, he spent seven years inside Ecuador’s Embassy in London. Australian MP Andrew Wilkie introduced the resolution.

Andrew Wilkie: “This will be the time for all of us to take a stand, to stand up and to take a stand, and to stand with Julian Assange, stand for the principles of justice, stand for the principles of media freedom and the rights of journalists to do their job. … This has gone on too long, that it must be brought to an end. And I’m confident if this Parliament can support this motion this afternoon, Deputy Speaker, it will send a very powerful political signal to the British government and to the U.S. government.”

Click here to see the two Belmarsh Tribunals that were held at the National Press Club last year.