WikiLeads boss Assange to address Aussie music festival

WikiLeaks boss Julian Assange is planning to give a pre-recorded address at an Australian music festival next week.

In a last-minute addition to the lineup of this year's Splendour in the Grass festival, Assange's address will be screened as part of a panel discussion on internet control, The Brisbane Times website reports.

Assange will record the video statement from England, where he is held under house arrest pending a court's decision on whether to extradite him to Sweden on allegations of sexual assault.

His mother, Christine Assange, will headline the panel, which will also include Assange's Australian lawyer, his colleague and co-author Suelette Dreyfus, as well as technology experts, the website says.

She lives in the Australian state of Queensland on the Sunshine Coast.

"Splendour Forum is bringing together some of the people in Australia who are closest to Julian and who are aware of what's going on behind the scenes," Mrs Assange said.

"This is a unique opportunity to hear directly from these people the stories the mainstream media has suppressed and the things they don't want you to know."

The panel, is titled Big Brother v Little Brother: From Government and Big Business to WikiLeaks and Anonymous, Who Really Controls Our Online Secrets?

Organisers said the video would tell music fans the "truth behind Wikileaks, his arrest and what it all means for young people in Australia and around the world", Australia's News.com reports.

The panel discussion will be held on Friday, July 29, the first day of the three-day festival, held in the state of Queensland.

Assange, who became a worldwide name after WikiLeaks published extremely sensitive U.S. diplomatic cables late last year, is fighting extradition to Sweden.

A week ago Assange appeared in London's High Court to fight the extradition charge. He argues that he will not get a fair trial if charged over allegations that he raped one woman and molested another during a visit to Stockholm last August. He denies the allegations.

He claims that extradition to Sweden could lead to a further extradition to the U.S., on charges relating to WikiLeaks' decision to publish the American diplomatic cables, which have infuriated the Pentagon and embarrassed diplomats around the world.

He is under house arrest in Norfolk, eastern England, where he must report daily to police and wear an electronic monitoring bracelet.

A decision on his appeal is yet to be made.