Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the US president's comments were encouraging.
US President Joe Biden says he is “considering” Australia's request to halt a decade-long prosecution of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange over the release of a trove of classified documents.
In February, Australia's parliament passed a motion backed by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese calling for Assange's release.
Assange, an Australian national, has been detained in Britain since 2019 as he seeks extradition to the United States to face espionage charges.
Before being remanded to London's Belmarsh Prison, Assange spent seven years holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he faced an abandoned sexual assault investigation.
Asked about Australia's request on Wednesday, Biden said he was “looking at it.”
Biden made the comments during a meeting with visiting Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Washington, D.C., but did not provide further details.
Albanese said Biden's comments were encouraging and that the issue “needs to be brought to a conclusion.”
“Mr. Assange has already paid a huge price and enough is enough. My very strong view is that there is nothing to be gained by Mr. Assange's continued imprisonment and that is the Australian Government's view. “Mr Albanese told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
In a social media post, Assange's wife Stella called on Biden to “do the right thing” and drop the charges.
Assange, 52, was charged with 17 counts of espionage and one count of computer abuse for his role in leaking classified documents related to the 2010 wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
If convicted, he faces up to 175 years in prison.
Assange's prosecution has been widely condemned by press freedom and human rights groups including Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders.
London's High Court last month deferred a decision on Mr. Assange's extradition until U.S. authorities gave assurances that he would not face the death penalty.
The court is expected to make a final decision on Assange's appeal on May 20, after giving the US three weeks to make further submissions in the case.
