Moscow, March 11 (RHC) -- Nations that support the extradition to the United States of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will lose their legality, warned today the speaker of the lower house of the Russian parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin.

"In 2016, the UN called Assange's detention arbitrary. His extradition would be a gross violation of the European Convention on Human Rights, including freedom of expression. If Assange's extradition occurs, nations supporting it will cease to be legal," Volodin asserted on his Telegram account.

On the assumption that the WikiLeaks leaks were about Russia or China instead of the United States, in the parliamentary leader's view, Assange would be seen as a "champion of truth and freedom."

"The situation around this person is an example of vileness, lies and double standards of Washington, London and Brussels," the State Duma head said.

Hearings in London's High Court on Assange's appeal against his extradition to the American nation occurred on February 20 and 21, but the court decision was not yet announced.

WikiLeaks was founded by Assange in 2006, but rose to fame in 2010 when it began publishing large-scale leaks of classified government information, particularly from the United States.

In 2010, for example, secret material was published on its website in which it could be seen that at least 18 civilians were killed after an attack launched in 2007 by a U.S. military helicopter in Baghdad.

In the same year, the publication of 250,000 diplomatic documents of the United States began.

Assange has been held in Belmarsh prison, southeast of London, since he was arrested on April 11, 2019 at Washington's request, after seven years in the Ecuadorian embassy in the United Kingdom for fear of being extradited to the United States. (Source: Prensa Latina)