#Assange #committed #crime #Mexican #President #tells #Biden
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Monday he had interceded with US President Joe Biden on behalf of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, insisting he had not committed a serious crime.
Lopez Obrador renewed an offer of asylum for Assange, who is fighting Britain’s extradition to the United States, where he could face decades in prison for alleged violations of US espionage laws.
Mexico’s leftist leader handed Biden a letter during his visit to Washington last week “stating that Assange has committed no serious crime,” he told reporters.
“He killed no one, violated no human rights and exercised his freedom,” Lopez Obrador said.
The 51-year-old Australian publisher’s detention would amount to an “affront to freedom of expression,” he said, adding that he has yet to receive a response from Biden.
Assange faces up to 175 years in prison if he is found guilty of violating US espionage laws by releasing military and diplomatic filings related to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq in 2010.
The UK government approved his extradition to the United States last month and has appealed.
Supporters are portraying Assange as a press freedom martyr after he was taken into British custody and sent to a maximum security prison after spending seven years in the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
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