If we are making claims or allegations about Julian Assange we should not forget ‘innocent until proven guilty’. Assange is in his fourth year of imprisonment without charge.
Swedish prosecutors dropped the sexual assault charges in 2019. The 18 indictments planned by the US government make no mention of the events in Sweden.
Assange will be charged under a resurrected Espionage Act of 1917, the first journalist to be prosecuted under the Act.
If convicted he risks 175 years’ imprisonment.
I refer readers to The Trial of Julian Assange by Nils Melzer, former United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture. Melzer is an authority on these matters with over 20 years in the field of international law and human rights. Melzer details the abuse of due process, breaches of standard procedure and failure by Swedish prosecutors and police to secure justice.
Given recent revelations of plans by US intelligence to kidnap and assassinate him, the possibility of extradition from Sweden to the US was not paranoid delusion. He was spied upon in the embassy including during discussions with his lawyers, amounting to a breach of his client-attorney confidentiality rights. Many believe the case should have been dismissed.
Thanks to Byron Councillors for passing a motion on 10 November 2022 calling on Albanese and the US president to drop the charge.
Supporters recognise that there is much at stake for society as a whole: principles of free speech, free press and our right to know what is being done in our name and with our resources.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
