London: Key figures in Britain’s opposition Labour Party said on Friday the government must oppose the extradition of Julian Assange to the US. Party leader Jeremy Corbyn tweeted the US is trying to extradite Assange as he exposed “evidence of atrocities in Iraq and Afghanistan”. Diane Abbott, Labour’s spokeswoman for domestic affairs, told the BBC the government should block the extradition on human rights grounds, adding much of the information that he brought into the public domain was in the public interest.
Abbott said the US case against Assange is about the “embarrassment of the things he’s revealed about the US military and security services.” Police arrested the WikiLeaks founder on Thursday at the Ecuadorian embassy in London after Ecuador withdrew his asylum. He is in custody awaiting sentencing for jumping bail in 2012, and is facing what may be a lengthy extradition proceeding initiated by the US. Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Marise Payne says Australia remains “completely opposed” to the death penalty amid fears Australian native Assange maybe exposed to such punishment if he is extradited to the US.