Julian Assange: France would consider giving Wikileaks founder asylum, minister says

Lawyer appeals to Macron for help to prevent client’s possible extradition to US

France’s government has said it would consider offering Julian Assange political asylum if he were to ask the country for refuge.

The WikiLeaks founder’s French lawyer, Juan Branco, had appealed to president Emmanuel Macron to intervene in the case and prevent the hacker being extradited from a UK prison to the US.

Mr Branco said on Thursday Mr Macron should offer mediation and “take this man under our protection”, adding that Assange has a small child in France.

France’s minister for Europe, Amelie de Montchalin, said in a radio interview on Friday that the country had not received a request for help from Assange.

“We should listen to what he wants to do”, she said, before also adding “we don’t offer asylum to someone who’s not asking for it.”

Despite Ms de Montchalin’s comments suggesting France would be open to at least considering an appeal for asylum from Assange, Mr Macron has yet to comment on the matter.

Assange was arrested in London on Thursday after the ambassador at the Ecuadorian embassy, where he had enjoyed political asylum for the past seven years, rescinded his asylum status.

He was then taken to Westminster Magistrates’ Court, where he was promptly found guilty of breaching his bail conditions in relation to a Swedish investigation into rape allegations.

The US has also charged Assange with conspiracy to commit computer intrusion with former army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning, a first step in what is likely to be a long extradition battle.

Meanwhile, Jeremy Corbyn has called on the government to stop Assange being extradited to the US, a move WikiLeaks has claimed could see him spend decades in prison.

“The extradition of Julian Assange to the US for exposing evidence of atrocities in Iraq and Afghanistan should be opposed by the British government,” the Labour leader wrote on Twitter.

Theresa May, home secretary Sajid Javid and foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt all said Assange’s arrest on Thursday showed that no one is “above the law”.

Additional reporting by agencies