February 21, 2024 4:12 PM Federal Government has reserved Assange's extradition to the United States.

BERLIN (Reuters) – The federal government has hinted at extraditing WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is jailed in Great Britain, to the United States.

“We see contradictions between our understanding of the law and the legal understanding of the United States,” a foreign ministry spokesman in Berlin said Wednesday, referring to the balance between press law and the betrayal of secrets. . “The federal government is making very clear and very clear the various legal positions in this particular case to the relevant persons, namely the relevant persons in the United States and the United Kingdom,” he explained. The charges against Assange in the US are not punishable in Germany.

The High Court in London is deciding whether to extradite Assange to the US. The 52-year-old is facing treason charges in the United States after his whistleblower website released classified information about the operations of the US military in 2010. If convicted in the U.S., Assange could face up to 175 years in prison, but his legal team said he could get at least 30 to 40 years in prison. The US charges him with various crimes, including violating the Espionage Act.

Attorney Fitzgerald finds the allegations against his client unfounded “because, in the course of his regular journalistic activities, he obtained and published confidential information that was factual and of public interest.” Assange released classified US reports and diplomatic cables obtained from informants on the platform of disclosure. The US has since described him as an enemy of the state who has endangered the lives of others – such as those cited in the reports. To his supporters, however, he is a hero who exposed America's abuse of power and misconduct in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

(Reporting by Andreas Rinke; Editing by Hans Bussmann. If you have any questions, please contact our editorial team at [email protected] (for politics and economics) or [email protected] (for companies and markets. .)