The wife of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, Stella Assange, said on Tuesday the EU must exert more pressure on the US to command Julian Assange's immediate release as he remains under administrative detention under British law enforcement. 

Julian Assange was one of the three finalists shortlisted for the Sakharov award in October when more than 40 MEPs nominated the journalist for this year's prize.

Assange's wife attended the event earlier today on his behalf. 

"I hope that the European institutions now take a clear position. They have the legitimacy from their own parliament to take a strong position. And that's what it will take because this is a political case," said Stella Assange.

"It requires political pressure on the European Union's close ally, the United States," she told a press conference at the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

EU lawmakers agreed on October 19 to award the 2022 Sakharov accolade to the people of Ukraine, which will be done this Wednesday in the city of Strasbourg.

By nominating Assange as a finalist for the prize, Brussels had "signalled politically that this case matters to the European Union, to European citizens and to European press," said Stella. 

"It is now for the European institutions to understand that they have a clear mandate from the European Parliament to take on this case and to advocate for Julian's release," she added, noting that the Belmarsh prison in which Julian is being held had refused him authorization to deliver a statement via video link. 

Julian Assange's wife speaking at today's European Parliament Press Seminar on the Sakharov Prize for which the publisher was nominated as a finalist: "Julian is suffering profoundly..our children need their father and this injustice must end" @Stella_Assange #FreeAssangeNOW pic.twitter.com/BYdBKtHiMw

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) December 13, 2022

Assange has been unlawfully charged in the US with 17 counts of "espionage" and one count of computer misuse in connection with WikiLeaks' disclosure of tens of thousands of military and diplomatic documents - whereby Assange exposed the US war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan - that whistleblower Chelsea Manning had disclosed.

Belmarsh maximum security prison has been where Assange is being kept in the UK for three and a half years so far as he awaits a potential 175-year sentence following the approval in December 2021 of his extradition to the US by the UK High Court.

Four of Britain’s most powerful government ministries continue to refuse to announce if their officials convened with US authorities to discuss the case of Julian Assange - an unjust case that violates human rights at its very core. 

Read more: 'Operation Pelican' to seize Assange involved 15 UK government agents