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Wikileaks Founder Assange Begins Run for Australian Senate

Wikileaks Founder Assange Begins Run for Australian Senate
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Local Editor


WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange officially launched his political party on Thursday in order to run for the Australian Senate elections this year, hoping that a Senate seat could provide him with protection against criminal prosecution.

Assange addressed the party launch in the Victoria state capital of Melbourne via Skype from the Ecuadorean Embassy in London where he has taken asylum.

"Canberra needs to be a place of light, not a place of darkness," Assange told the launch at a library in suburban Melbourne.

If Assange wins the election, he would be required to take up his Senate seat on July 1, 2014.

For her part, WikiLeaks Party national council member Sam Castro said that if Assange wins a seat but cannot return to Australia by then, the party can choose a replacement, but also assures that it is the Australian government's responsibility to ensure an elected senator could sit in Parliament.
Wikileaks Founder Assange Begins Run for Australian Senate
"Whether the current government or the opposition would go against the United States' wishes, I guess, is something we could find out in time," she added.

Assange told the website that if he wins a Senate seat, the U.S. Department of Justice would drop its espionage investigation rather than risk a diplomatic row.

Julian Assange is the editor-in-chief and founder of the WikiLeaks website, which publishes secret information, news leaks and classified media from anonymous news sources and whistleblowers.

WikiLeaks became internationally well known in 2010 when it began to publish US military and diplomatic cables. Bradley Manning was said to be one of the sources of the leaks and was arrested on these grounds.

Source: News Agencies, edited by website team

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