Assange's Mother to Protest Obama’s Australia Visit
Besides carbon tax protesters who promised to make their voices heard when U.S. President Barack Obama visits Australia next week, the mother of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange will also hold a protest outside Parliament House in Canberra.
Christine Assange said she wants to draw Obama's attention to her son's plight after Assange lost last week a British High Court appeal against extradition to Sweden to face sex charges.
Assange, 40, an Australian citizen, fears U.S. authorities will seek his extradition from Sweden to face charges linked with his Web site's publication of thousands of classified U.S. government documents.
"I'm asking Australians around the country on Nov. 17 to refuse to celebrate the Obama visit and instead replace it with a day of support for Julian," Christine Assange told AAP.
She timed her protest with Obama's address at a special session of the Australian Parliament. She says both the Labor Party and the Opposition will not stand up to the U.S. over her son's case.
Assange would have to get through a tight security cordon erected by Australian authorities for the two-day visit of Obama to Canberra and Darwin. But she vowed to get as close to the American president as she could.
Australia is providing consular support to Julian Assange and made known to Britain and Sweden it expects due process to be observed. The Foreign Ministry warned the Assanges that it cannot directly intervene in other countries' legal processes.