A CROSS-PARTY group of British parliamentarians has written to President Joe Biden asking him to drop the US prosecution of whistle-blowing journalist Julian Assange.

Mr Assange, who faces a prison sentence of up to 175 years if convicted of espionage in a US court, remains on remand in London’s Belmarsh Prison, despite winning an initial court battle against extradition.

The letter, co-ordinated by Labour MP Richard Burgon, notes that as president Barack Obama’s vice-president, Mr Biden “played an important role in the decision not to prosecute Julian Assange over publications relating to the Afghan and Iraq wars and conditions in Guantanamo Bay.”