The father and brother of Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, accused by the United States of espionage, were received with honors by the mayor of Mexico City in the name of “freedom of speech” in a country that says it is ready to grant him asylum in Australia, reports AFP.

The mayor of Mexico City, Claudia Sheinbaum, symbolically handed over the keys to the capital, which “has always been a city of refuge, a progressive city” to the father of Julian Assange, John Shipton.

The activist journalist’s father said he was “moved to tears”.

Julian Assange embodies the struggle of “David against Goliath”, added the spokesman of the president of the republic Jesus Ramirez, hailing his fight for “freedom of speech”.

Mexico is ready to offer Julian Assange “protection and asylum,” President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said in July, saying he had made the offer in a letter to his US counterpart Joe Biden.

Julian Assange appealed the British government’s decision to extradite him to the United States. He was arrested by British police in 2019 after seven years in hiding in the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

At the age of 51, he is being prosecuted in the United States for the publication in 2010 on the WikiLeaks website of more than 700,000 confidential documents relating to the activities of the American military, in particular in Iraq and Afghanistan.

He faces up to a decade in prison if convicted of espionage under the law, which prohibits the release of classified information.