President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of Mexico.
On Jan. 4, a British court ordered that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange not be extradited to the United States. Mexico’s president later said the country was ready to grant assange political asylum.
“I will let the Ministry of Foreign Affairs carry out the relevant procedures and ask the British government to release Julian Assange and grant him political asylum,” Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador told a news conference On January 4.
U.S. prosecutors have charged Mr. Assange with 17 counts of espionage and one count of computer misuse in connection with wikileaks’ 2010 release of U.S. military and diplomatic documents on Afghanistan and Iraq.
At a hearing on Jan. 4, Vanessa Baraitser, a magistrate at the British District Court, rejected an extradition request from the United States, saying that Mr. Assange would most likely commit suicide if sent to the United States. The United States responded by saying it would appeal against the British judge’s decision.
Mexican President Jose Manuel Lopez Obrador told a news conference that he believed Mr. Assange “deserves a chance,” that he “supports an amnesty for Mr. Assange” and that Mexico is ready to protect him.
Last year Mr Lopez Obrador called on the British government to release Mr Assange, saying his detention was “torture” and that wikileaks had released documents revealing the workings of the world’s “dictators”.
Mr. Assange, 49 years old, has released thousands of classified documents and diplomatic cables that have embarrassed many governments around the world. Assange has spent most of the past decade in prison or in self-incarceration.
Mr Lopez Obrador, who was elected president in 2018, has long been opposed to the ruling elite and has sought to break the political and economic conditions of the establishment.
Mr. Assange is not the first case in which the Mexican government has offered political asylum. Last year Mexico granted political asylum to Evo Morales, Bolivia’s former president.
Mr. Morales has been accused of rigging the laws and constitution to win a fourth term in the October 2020 election. Mr. Morales denies the charges and claims victory. Morales resigned in November 2020 after mass protests and the loss of support from the military and police.
Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard announced at a news conference on November 11 that morales would be granted political asylum.
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