Julian's Assange's biological father fears his son may spend the rest of his life behind bars if he's extradited to the US.
John Shipton has broken his silence after the arrest of the controversial Wikileaks founder earlier this month after he was evicted from the Ecuadorean embassy in London.
Mr Shipton claimed Assange was 'traded' by Ecuador with the US in return for an International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan if he was removed from the embassy, where he had been holed up for seven years prior to his arrest on April 11.
Speaking publicly for the first time since his arrest, Mr Shipton claims his son has been persecuted and betrayed by US politics.
'Ecuador doesn't have its own currency,' Mr Shipton told 60 Minutes.
'It uses the US dollar. You can't get an IMF loan unless the United States approves it - upon agreement to remove Julian from the embassy.'
'My fear was that he'd been dragooned to the US and been thrown into a jail cell, never to get out again,' Mr Shipton said.