A supporter of Julian Assange -

Kirsty Wigglesworth / AP / SIPA

Mexico offered political asylum on Monday to the founder of WikiLeaks, the Australian Julian Assange, after British justice refused his extradition to the United States, which wants to try him for espionage.

"I am going to ask the Minister of Foreign Affairs to make the necessary arrangements to ask the British government for the release of Julian Assange and for Mexico to offer him political asylum," Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said during his daily press conference.

175 years in prison in the United States

"We are ready to offer asylum and we congratulate the British justice for its decision", added the Head of State.

British justice on Monday rejected Julian Assange's extradition request to the United States, which is claiming it after the publication of hundreds of thousands of confidential documents.

She cited the 49-year-old Australian at risk of suicide. 

Julian Assange risks the United States 175 years in prison for having disseminated, as of 2010, more than 700,000 classified documents on American military and diplomatic activities, in particular in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Mexico, land of asylum

The United States accuses the founder of WikiLeaks of having endangered American service sources, an accusation he disputes.

Among the published documents was a video showing civilians killed by US gunship fire in Iraq in July 2007, including two journalists from Reuters.

Julian Assange was arrested in April 2019 after seven years behind the walls of the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he had taken refuge after violating his bail conditions, fearing extradition to the United States or Sweden.

In both countries, he was the subject of rape prosecutions, which he contests, and which were dropped.

Mexico has a long tradition of political asylum.

Former Bolivian President Evo Morales had thus temporarily benefited from it in November 2019 following his resignation after his contested election for a fourth term. 

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