A man has scaled Parliament House shouting “free Julian Assange” as he grasped the coat of arms before being arrested by police.
Former Wikileaks founder and Australian citizen Julian Assange remains behind bars in a London prison, fighting extradition to the United States.
The protester yelled “whistleblowers are not criminals” and “bring Julian home" in his attempt to draw public attention to the publisher's case.
Assange is accused of conspiring to hack the US government computers and violating espionage laws.
AAP
The man later folded up his "Free Assange" banner and walked across to a rooftop balcony where he was taken into custody by waiting police.
He had told onlookers to send him up a sleeping bag as he intended only to come down once Assange was released by British authorities.
Last month, independent MP Andrew Wilkie announced 11 members of Parliament had joined a group lobbying to bring Assange home, which held support from Liberal, National, Labor and crossbench members.
"Julian Assange has suffered enough and so has his family. It's time to end this geopolitical madness," Mr Wilkie said in a statement at the time.
"The man's an Australian. He's not an American. And he wasn't in the US when he spoke out about the war crimes.
"Put simply, he must be allowed to return to Australia."
