Julian Assange to Run for Australian Senate
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has announced that he has decided to run for a seat in the Australian Senate after posting the details on the WikiLeaks Twitter page.
WikiLeaks, known for the publication of secret information, explained that it found a way that made it possible for Assange to run for the Senate even though he is in England under a court ordered house arrest.
"We have discovered that it is possible for Julian Assange to run for the Australian Senate while detained. Julian has decided to run," WikiLeaks posted to its Twitter account on Saturday.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
The earliest Senate election would not be until late 2013.
The group also tweeted that it plans to support a candidate to run against Prime Minister Julia Gillard in her home town of Lalor in Victoria, according to CNN.
While Assange has been under house arrest he has been working with his legal team to block an extradition order to Sweden on the grounds that the warrant for his arrest is invalid.
Assange is wanted in Sweden for questioning related to a sex crimes investigation. Two Swedish women accused Assange of rape and sexual assault. Asssange maintains the encounter was consensual.
WikiLeaks claimed to have amassed a collection of 1.2 million documents in just about a year after the site launched in 2006 propelling Assange to the international stage.
Included in the cache of documents were United States embassy cables, Afghanistan and Iraqi war logs as well as other sensitive documents from prominent global figures.
Assange recently stated that WikiLeaks is close to being shutdown which would mean suspending the publication of other documents due to a financial blockade that was imposed on the site.
The website is operating on cash reserves after an "arbitrary and unlawful financial blockade" was imposed by Bank of America, Visa, MasterCard, PayPal and Western union last December, according to Assange.
