Assange runs for Senate to get US off his back
Monday 18 February 2013
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EmailWikileaks founder Julian Assange said today that his bid to become an Australian senator was a defence against criminal prosecution in the US and Britain.
Mr Assange spoke to website The Conversation at the Ecuadorian embassy in London where he was granted asylum in June to avoid extradition to Sweden on sex crime allegations.
If he wins a Senate seat in elections on September 24, Mr Assange told the website that the US Department of Justice would drop its investigation rather than risk a diplomatic row.
The British government would follow suit, otherwise "the political costs of the current standoff will be higher still," he said.
Mr Assange's supporters enrolled him to vote in Victoria state last week, a necessary step toward being nominated as a candidate.
If elected, his six-year term of office would begin in July 2014.
Mr Assange plans to register a WikiLeaks Party to run Senate candidates in several Australian states.
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