In an open letter, 48 MPs and senators across all parties – including 13 from the ruling Labor Party - implored US Attorney General Merrick Garland to “drop the extradition proceedings and allow Mr Assange to return home”. Assange, an Australian citizen, remains in Belmarsh prison in London as he fights a US bid to extradite him to face charges related to the publication of hundreds of thousands of leaked documents about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as diplomatic cables.