[ad_1]
Julian Assange 2017 on the balcony of the Embassy in Ecuador
Image: dpa
After a London court refused to extradite the Wikileaks founder to the United States, Mexico offers to help. The country also refers to its tradition of providing protection to those who are politically persecuted.
METERexiko wants to offer political asylum to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. At his daily press conference on Monday, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said he would instruct Chancellor Marcelo Ebrard to address the British authorities. He referred to the Mexican tradition of offering protection to politically persecuted people. The North American country also ensures that they do not interfere in the affairs of other states.
A London court refused to extradite Assange to the United States on Monday. The judge based this on Assange’s mental health and the conditions of detention that would await him in the United States. The judiciary accuses the native Australian of stealing and publishing secret material from military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan together with whistleblower Chelsea Manning. The 49-year-old man put the informants’ lives at risk. His followers see him as an investigative journalist who has exposed war crimes.
The United States reacted angrily to the rejection of its request for the extradition of the founder of Wikileaks. The government was “extremely disappointed” with the London court’s decision, the Justice Department in Washington said on Monday. “We will continue our efforts to extradite Mr. Assange to the United States.”
López Obrador described the sentence as a “triumph of justice.” He was in favor of a pardon for Assange. The Mexican head of state and government is a left-wing populist and nationalist, but so far he has gotten along well with outgoing President Donald Trump. Mexico has always been a haven for leftists in the past. For example, Spaniards arrived during the civil war, including film director Luis Buñuel, and South Americans during the military dictatorships of the 1970s. More recently, in late 2019, former Bolivian President Evo Morales went into exile in Mexico for about a month after his forced resignation.
