WikiLeaks Assange’s Father Urges Australia to Bring Him Home

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s father, John Shipton, has urged the Morrison government to provide special assistance to Assange, suggesting he could somehow be brought to Australia.

“DFAT and the prime minister should in a nuanced way do something. It can be resolved simply to the satisfaction of all. There has been some talk in a meeting between a senator and a senior DFAT official to extradite Julian to Australia,” said Shipton, as he spoke with the Herald Sun on Sunday. He urged the Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and the Department of Foreign Affairs to bring his son home.

“I saw him, the way they dragged him down the steps, the coppers, he didn’t look good. I’m 74 and I look better than him and he’s 47. It’s such a shock. For months and months he has been living like a high-security prisoner, he can’t even go to the toilet. There have been cameras watching his every move”, Shipton added.

“Regardless of what you think of Julian Assange, the principle here is really important. Julian Assange is responsible for uncovering what were war crimes,” Senator Di Natale told the ABC’s Insiders program on Sunday.

“What we do know is that the US have said they are going to go after him. We do think that Australia should make representations to the US. If we’ve got a special relationship with the US, let’s exercise that choice.”

The 47-year-old Australian activist was arrested on Thursday at the Ecuadorian embassy in London. The United States is now seeking his extradition on a charge of computer hacking related to Wikileaks’ work in 2010 with whistleblower Chelsea Manning.

WikiLeaks has published thousands of state secrets, including embarrassing diplomatic cables and footage of a US military helicopter attack in Iraq that killed civilians, including two staff members of news agency Reuters.