Julian Assange compares his situation to Kim Dotcom's extradition case

Julian Assange has compared his situation to Kim Dotcom's extradition case. Photo / ESTHR

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has compared his situation to Kim Dotcom's extradition case, saying they are both victims of "lawfare" by the United States.

Mr Assange accused the US of spreading its security laws into numerous other countries, including Australia, where his operations are based, and Hong Kong, where Dotcom's business was centred.

Mr Assange has been granted political asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he has been holed up for three years.

He is facing allegations of rape in Sweden, and believes that if he leaves the embassy he will be extradited to the US on espionage and hacking charges in relation to his whistleblowing website.

In an interview with Radio New Zealand this morning, Assange said there were some common threads in his case and whistleblower Edward Snowden and Dotcom cases. All three were being pursued by the same prosecutor in Alexandra, Virginia.

"It's actually something quite interesting," he told Radio New Zealand. "Alexandra, Virginia is picked in all national security cases.

"Now I'm an Australian. Wikileaks is not a US publishing organisation. Our people are not in the US, we don't publish in the US so what the hell is the United States doing trying to bring an espionage case against me?

"You can ask yourself a similar question about what they're trying to do in relation to extraditing Kim Dotcom from New Zealand and his Hong Kong operation.

"That jurisdiction is simply picked because it has the highest density of government employees. It's 5km from the centre of Washington DC, it has the CIA, Department of Homeland Security, the IRS ... within the jury catchment area."

Assange said prosecutors in Alexandra were involved in "pushing US law into more than 67 different jurisdictions", an approach he described as "lawfare".

"It's a concept of getting access to territory by pushing your laws into another territory instead of your military."

He said that the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), a 12-nation trade deal which includes New Zealand, could partly be seen as an extension of this approach by the United States.

Assange also addressed the allegations against him in Sweden, saying he had not been charged with any crime. The sexual assault allegations are no longer being considered because of the statutes of limitations, but he still faces a rape allegation.

"There is only one finding in that case and that finding is not only that I'm innocent but that no crime has been committed," he said. "The woman herself says that she was not raped and the police made it up, and that's in the police documentation."

Assange is releasing a book about Wikileaks, which he said New Zealand featured in only briefly.

"But I suppose more importantly several things that New Zealand is involved in appear, such as the TPP, and the broader constellation which includes the TISA, which is the US version of the TPP, and the International Criminal Court."