This article is more than 11 months old

This article is more than 11 months old

The Labor backbencher Julian Hill has declared Australia must vigorously contest any move to extradite the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange from the United Kingdom to the United States on espionage charges.

Joining concerns about Assange expressed by the former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce, the Victorian Labor MP told Guardian Australia: “I do hold serious concerns about [Assange’s] situation.

“He’s an Australian and at the very least we must be vigorously consistent in opposing extradition to countries where he might face the death penalty.”

US efforts to jail Assange for espionage are a grave threat to a free media | Alan Rusbridger Read more

Assange faced allegations of sexual assault in Sweden when he entered the Ecuadorian embassy in London 2012 and sought asylum because he feared being extradited to America. He spent nearly seven years in the embassy until police removed him in April after Ecuador revoked his political asylum.

The British home secretary, Sajid Javid, has signed a request for Assange to be extradited to the US where he faces charges of computer hacking.

Javid’s decision opens the way for the WikiLeaks founder to be sent to the US. Assange faces an 18-count indictment, issued by the US Department of Justice, that includes charges under the Espionage Act. He is accused of soliciting and publishing classified information and conspiring to hack into a government computer.

Australia’s shadow attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, met Assange’s lawyer, Jennifer Robinson, last month, but declined to comment after the conversation. “Mr Assange’s detention and any legal proceedings are a matter of current consideration in accordance with the British justice system and it would be inappropriate to comment while that process is under way.”

Joyce said on Monday: “Sovereignty is not just for people that you like or people that you have a philosophical relationship to, it might be for someone you detest, it might be for someone that you find completely obnoxious.

“Nonetheless, if they’re a citizen of this nation, they should be afforded the rights of a citizen.”

Government talking points, accidentally circulated to journalists on Monday, said of the Assange case: “The Australian government cannot interfere in the United Kingdom’s legal processes, just as another country cannot interfere in ours.

“We appreciate that some members of the public feel very strongly about Mr Assange’s situation but it is important to remember that Australia cannot intervene in the legal processes of another country.

“Mr Assange will be entitled to due process, including legal representation, in those processes.”