LONDON – WikiLeaks’ founder Julian Assange, who has been holed up at Ecuador’s London embassy since 2012, said on Thursday he stood by his offer to be extradited to the United States providing his rights would be protected.
Assange said last week he would accept extradition if former military intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning was freed and on Wednesday, U.S. President Barack Obama commuted Manning’s 35-year sentence, meaning she will be released in May.
“I stand by everything I said including the offer to go to the United States if Chelsea Manning’s sentence was commuted,” Assange said in a live online audio news conference. “It’s not going to be commuted [until] May. We can have many discussions to that point.”
Assange, 45, who fled to the Ecuadorean embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden over allegations of rape, said there was no change in the position regarding whether he would stay where he was.
MICHAEL HOLDEN