No US 'indication' of extraditing Assange, says Oz FM

Sydney, June 24 (ANI): Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr has said that the US Government has given no indication over wanting WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange extradited.

According to news.com.au, Senator Carr said that he has not received any hint from two discussions with American officials if they planned to extradite him to the US over the release of secret diplomatic cables.

"There is not the remotest evidence that is the case," Carr said.

"There is a view that it would be easier for the US to extradite him from the UK rather than from Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning about (matters) wholly unrelated to anything to do with WikiLeaks or state secrets," he added.

Assange has been at the Ecuador Embassy in London for nearly a week, as the South American nation is considering his political asylum application.

The asylum bid is a last-ditch effort to avoid extradition to Sweden to face sex-crime allegations, which he has said are baseless.

Carr said he is yet to receive a complete denial from US authorities that they are not interested in extraditing the Australian.

"They haven't been able to rule out that one corner of the American administration is considering it, but I would expect the US wouldn't want to touch this," he said.

He said the US Government was aware that Australia did not want Assange extradited from anywhere. (ANI)

null