Julian Assange's lawyer is set to address the National Press Club. Here's the latest on the extradition fight

Jennifer Robinson has represented the Wikileaks founder, who is in a London prison fighting extradition to the United States, for more than a decade.

Julian Assange's lawyer Jennifer Robinson (right) will address the National Press Club next week. Source: AAP, SBS

Assange has been in a London prison fighting extradition to the United States, for more than a decade.

• Jennifer Robinson has represented the Wikileaks founder.
• Assange has been in a London prison fighting extradition to the United States, for more than a decade.

Julian Assange's lawyer is set to front the National Press Club next week amid his legal battle against extradition from the United Kingdom to the United States.

Jennnifer Robinson, an Australian human rights lawyer based in London, is scheduled to deliver a speech — Julian Assange, free speech and democracy — on Wednesday.

Ms Robinson has represented the Australian activist since 2010 when the US government launched a criminal investigation into Wikileaks, the website he founded that published thousands of classified military documents and diplomatic cables.

Protestors during a demonstration protesting the imprisonment of Australian activist Julian Assange, along the Yarra River in Melbourne, on Saturday, 8 October 2022. Source: AAP / Joel Carrett

Ms Robinson, who works for London's Doughty Street Chambers alongside Amal Clooney, specialises in media, international, and public law, and is among a number of lawyers working on Mr Assange's case.

In June, she said Mr Assange's legal team would lodge an appeal over then-home secretary Priti Patel's decision to authorise his extradition to the US. It was filed with the UK's High Court in August.

It is there he is wanted on 18 charges, including espionage and hacking.

If convicted, lawyers for Mr Assange have said he could face a jail term of 170 years. US lawyers said he would likely face four to six years in jail.

Last weekend, protesters took to the streets of Melbourne calling for Mr Assange's release from London's Belmarsh Prison, where he has been held since he was removed from the Ecuadorian embassy in 2019, where he had sought refuge since 2012.

Among them was his brother, Gabriel Shipton, who said there was an "expectation" the federal government would free Mr Assange from prison after then-Opposition leader Anthony Albanese said in December last year that "enough is enough" in regards to his incarceration.

Since he was elected prime minister in May, Mr Albanese has been quieter on the issue. He said in June that he stood by the comments he made last year, but his government is against using "megaphone diplomacy" over the case.

On Wednesday, days after the protests, Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus addressed the press club and was asked whether he believed it was in the public interest for the prosecution of Mr Assange to continue.

Mr Dreyfus said the case had "gone on long enough", but the government would not conduct its "representations to the government of the United States in public."

Mr Assange's family told SBS News in August that they are "living in fear" he might not survive as the legal battle against his extradition continues.

He suffered a mini-stroke in October last year, and Australian Doctors for Assange wanted in July that he was "suffering from severe life-threatening cardiovascular and stress-related medical conditions".