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- Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison says WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is free to return "home" once all charges against him have been dealt with.
- Assange faces espionage charges for publishing secret documents online and is fighting extradition to the US in UK courts.
- A British judge on Monday blocked the US' extradition request, but prosecutors are set to appeal the ruling to London's High Court.
SYDNEY – Julian Assange is "free to return home" to Australia once legal challenges against him are dealt with, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Tuesday, after a UK court denied a request to extradite the WikiLeaks founder to the United States.
A British judge on Monday blocked the extradition request by the United States, where Assange was set to face criminal charges including breaking a spying law, saying his mental health problems meant he would be at risk of suicide.
The US justice department said it would continue to seek Assange's extradition, with prosecutors set to appeal the ruling to London's High Court.
Morrison told local radio station 2GB:
"So, yes, it's just a straightforward process of the legal system in the UK working its way through."
Anti-establishment hero
Assange, 49, is accused by the United States of 18 offences during the administration of former president Barack Obama, relating to the release by WikiLeaks of confidential US military records and diplomatic cables which they say put lives at risk.
Assange's supporters, however, see him as an anti-establishment hero who has been victimised because he exposed US wrongdoing in Afghanistan and Iraq and say his prosecution is a politically motivated assault on journalism and free speech.
WikiLeaks came to prominence when it published a US military video in 2010 showing a 2007 attack by Apache helicopters in Baghdad that killed a dozen people, including two Reuters news staff. It then released thousands of secret classified files and diplomatic cables.
Mexico on Monday offered political asylum to Assange, a move that could anger the United States.
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