Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has announced his plans to run for parliament in Australia, despite being under house arrest in the United Kingdom.
Wikileaks announced its intentions on Twitter earlier today, saying the organisation also planned to field a candidate to run against Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard in the next elections, which are due in 2013.
“We have discovered that it is possible for Julian Assange to run for the Australian Senate while detained. Julian has decided to run,” the Wikileaks website tweeted.
The 40-year-old Australian is being detained in England facing possible extradition to Sweden, where police want to question him over allegations that he sexually assaulted two women in 2010.
But WikiLeaks says despite his legal predicament, Mr Assange is eligible to run for the Australian Upper House. The organisation also released a document on Twitter they claimed held the answer that would allow him to run while under house arrest, including the possible launch of a ‘Wikileaks Party’.
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According to Australian National University political scientist John Wanna, Mr Assange can run for parliament if he remains on Australia’s electoral roll, despite living overseas for several years.
“If he gets on the roll, then he can stand as long as he’s solvent and not in jail and not insane,” Mr Wanna said.
WikiLeaks said it will also field a candidate to run directly against Prime Minister Gillard in her lower house electorate of Lalor, in Victoria, in the elections.
“...the state Julian will run for will be announced at the appropriate time,” WikiLeaks said.
The Australian government has previously blasted WikiLeaks, with Ms Gillard describing its release of US diplomatic cables as “grossly irresponsible”.
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Ms Gillard’s government ordered Australian police to investigate whether WikiLeaks had broken Australian law, but they reported back in 2010 it had not broken any under their jurisdiction in releasing the cables.
Mr Assange, a former computer hacker, is fighting being sent to Stockholm because he fears it would open the way for his extradition to the US to face charges of spying linked to the leaking of classified military documents by US soldier Bradley Manning.
Manning has been formally charged for allegedly turning over a trove of classified US documents to WikiLeaks in one of the most serious intelligence breaches in US history.
Mr Assange has strongly denied the claims of sexual assault against him, saying they are politically motivated.
The Supreme Court in London reserved judgement on Mr Assange’s extradition at the last hearing in February. A decision is not expected for a number of weeks.