Brazil’s president-elect voices support for campaign to free Julian Assange

Brazil’s president-elect has stressed his ongoing support for the campaign to free WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

Luis Inacio Lula da Silva met Kristinn Hrafnsson, WikiLeaks’ editor-in-chief, and Joseph Farrell, a WikiLeaks ambassador, in a private meeting in the capital Brasilia.

Mr da Silva, a former political prisoner, has long been outspoken about Assange’s imprisonment and extradition attempt by the US.

Assange is wanted by American authorities over documents leaked in 2010 and 2011 related to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

At the meeting, Mr da Silva reiterated his wish to see Assange freed.

The WikiLeaks delegation will be received at Brazil’s Parliament on Tuesday by Humberto Costa, the president of the Human Rights Commission of the Senate, and will speak at a plenary session of the lower chamber with parliamentarians to agree on a series of actions – including parliamentarians lodging a letter at the US embassy in Brasilia calling on American authorities to drop the charges against Assange.

On Wednesday, the delegation will travel to Rio de Janeiro, where they will hold a public meeting.

Assange is being held in Belmarsh prison in London as he fights extradition to the US.

He lived in the Ecuadorian embassy in London for seven years from 2012 before being dragged out.

He fears a life sentence if extradited.