THE lawyer representing WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has attacked the Australian government for failing to offer help to his client.
And Mr Assange’s London-based lawyer, Mark Stephens, has said sex charges against Mr Assange amounted to a "show trial".
As the fallout from the release of diplomatic cables spreads to Australia, Mr Stephens questioned the worth of an Australian passport.
"He has had no assistance or offers of assistance ... by the Australian authorities in Sweden, or London or America," Mr Stephens told ABC radio.
"One has to question what the value of an Australian passport is, whether you agree with what he has done or not."
"One would think that having an Australian passport you would get some assistance but thus far, I have to say, the high commissions and embassies have been shutting their doors to Julian Assange."
Asked if his client had broken any laws by releasing thousands of confidential diplomatic cables, Mr Stephens said "not that I can see”.
He dismissed suggestions that his client was a terrorist
"Julian Assange is giving out useful information, journalists, investigative journalists, have been doing that for years," he said.
"What he got, unasked for, he didn’t hack for it, was the electronic equivalent of a brown envelope. Quality investigative journalists have been working with brown envelopes and material given to them to hold our governments to account, to ascertain whether what they are doing is what we want them to be doing.
"If Julian Assange is a criminal than every national newspaper that has published exactly the same stories is also a criminal. Are we going to lock up editors from all over the planet? I don’t think so."
On the charges his client was facing in Sweden, Mr Stephens said the original allegation of rape brought against his client had been dropped and that he had now been charged with "sex by surprise".
"Originally the allegation was one of rape and many will remember that but of course what has not been reported is that the Swedish court of appeal dismissed the case of rape and said the facts don’t support it," he said.
"They are now investigating something called sex by surprise."
"It is the very first time Sweden has actually sought extradition for this charge … it is a fairly minor charge and usually carries something like a 5000 Krone penalty."
Yesterday, Mr Stephens, had expressed concern that the pursuit of Mr Assange had "political motivations", in comments to the BBC.
Swedish prosecutor Marianne Ny, who is handling the rape allegations in Sweden, said: "I can very clearly say no, there is nothing at all of that nature."
"This investigation has proceeded perfectly normally without any political pressure of any kind," Ms Ny said.
"It is completely independent," she added.
Mr Assange is in hiding somewhere in the world, believed to be Europe.
Interpol has issued a "red notice" against him alerting all police forces that he is a wanted person in Sweden, which wants to question him "in connection with a number of sexual offences".
Additional reporting: AFP
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