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The Americas

The Latest: France won't offer Assange asylum unless asked

Associated Press
Published | Updated
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    FILE - In this Feb. 24, 2011, file photo, the founder of WikiLeaks Julian Assange speaks to the media after his extradition hearing at Belmarsh Magistrates' Court in London. The arrest of Assange reignites a debate with no easy answer: Is the former computer hacker and founder of WikiLeaks a journalist or not? His lawyers are quick to characterize the case against him as a threat to all journalists. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, File)

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    Julian Assange gestures as he arrives at Westminster Magistrates' Court in London, after the WikiLeaks founder was arrested by officers from the Metropolitan Police and taken into custody Thursday April 11, 2019. Police in London arrested WikiLeaks founder Assange at the Ecuadorean embassy Thursday for failing to surrender to the court in 2012, shortly after the South American nation revoked his asylum .(Victoria Jones/PA via AP)

LONDON – The Latest on WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's arrest (all times local):

9:45 a.m.

France's government says it won't consider offering Julian Assange political asylum unless he asks for it.

Assange's French lawyer has appealed to French President Emmanuel Macron to intervene to bring the WikiLeaks founder from a London jail to France and help him avoid extradition to the United States.

Lawyer Juan Branco told The Associated Press on Thursday that Macron should offer mediation and to "take this man under our protection." He said Assange has a small child in France.

France's secretary of state for European affairs, Amelie de Montchalin, said Friday on France-Inter radio that while Europe has special measures to protect whistleblowers, France hasn't received a formal request from Assange. She said "we should listen to what he wants to do" but "we don't offer asylum to someone who's not asking for it."

Macron hasn't commented publicly.

Assange was arrested Thursday in London and faces U.S. charges related to WikiLeaks' publication of tens of thousands of classified government documents.

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9 a.m.

The leader of Britain's opposition Labour Party says the government should oppose the extradition of Julian Assange to the United States.

Jeremy Corbyn said in a tweet that the U.S. is trying to extradite Assange because he exposed "evidence of atrocities in Iraq and Afghanistan."

Diane Abbott, Labour's spokeswoman for domestic affairs, told the BBC on Friday that the government should block the extradition on human rights grounds. Assange was arrested Thursday at the Ecuadorean embassy in London.

Abbott says the U.S. case against Assange is about the "embarrassment of the things he's revealed about the American military and security services."

She says Assange is "a whistleblower, and much of the information that he brought into the public domain, it could be argued, was very much in the public interest."