Lawyers for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange say the U.S. Department of Justice continues to seek his client’s extradition on all 18 charges that threaten Assange’s 175-year prison sentence and has shown no willingness to reach a deal.
He was commenting on a report published by The Wall Street Journal that the U.S. Department of Justice was considering whether to allow Assange to plead guilty to charges of mishandling classified information, potentially striking a deal that would ultimately free Assange. Released from British prison.
Lawyer Barry Pollack said in a written statement obtained by Sputnik News: “There is no indication to us that the Department of Justice intends to settle this case. The United States will continue to demand Assange’s extradition with the same insistence, and he may be sentenced to up to 175 years for this years in prison.
The defense is currently seeking to appeal to London’s High Court against the decision to extradite Assange from the UK to the US, where the 52-year-old Australian is accused of leaking the largest batch of classified information in the country’s history.
Assange rose to fame by founding the website WikiLeaks, which published hundreds of thousands of classified materials, including videos of Iraqi civilians killed in U.S. helicopter attacks on Baghdad.
