Never in the history of Britain has someone with no prior convictions been sentenced to incarceration in a maximum security facility for a ‘bail-skipping’ charge. Moreover, the bail-skipping violation was predicated on an investigation which had been previously dropped due to lack of compelling evidence. As a result of this unprecedented series of events, a journalist’s life is now in peril.
New reports now indicate that due to his deteriorating physical condition, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been moved to the medical wing of Britain’s super-max Belmarsh Prison.
“Mr Assange’s health had already significantly deteriorated after seven years inside the Ecuadorian Embassy, under conditions that were incompatible with basic human rights,” WikiLeaks said in a statement earlier today.
His health is so poor that he was not able to appear at this morning’s extradition hearing at Westminster Magistrates Court in London.
According to multiple reports, Assange has experienced “dramatically lost weight”, with “significantly deteriorated health,” which has made it difficult for him to perform normal functions, including talking.
According to WikiLeaks lawyer Per Samuelson, following their last meeting, “it was not possible to conduct a normal conversation with him. Samuelson added, “The decision of prison authorities to move him to the health ward speaks for itself.”
Family members are calling his brutal treatment at the hands of the British government as something akin to a “slow kill.”
The UK Gov is unlawfully slowly killing my son!
They made him very ill by refusing him ANY access to life sustaining fresh air, exercise, sun/VitD or proper medical care for 6 YEARS of illegal Embassy detention (@UN)
Then against ALL medical advice threw him into a prison cell https://t.co/AJxqACDLpo
— Mrs Christine Assange (@AssangeMrs) May 29, 2019
"Being in a maximum security prison is difficult for anyone but he spent 7 years in Ecuadorian Embassy, London before that without medical treatment" @wikileaks ambassador @SwaziJAF talks to RT after Julian Assange is moved to the hospital unit at HMP Belmarsh. pic.twitter.com/fcItjmMhW7
— RT UK (@RTUKnews) May 30, 2019
According to reports earlier today, Assange was so ill that he was not able to appear at his extradition hearing scheduled for this morning, as judge Emma Arbuthnot adjourned the hearing until June 12th, and suggested the hearing could take place in Belmarsh.
#JulianAssange was too ill to appear at his court #hearing in London on Thursday, his lawyer said.
He had been due to appear at his case management hearing via video link from #Belmarsh Prison but lawyer Gareth Peirce said he was "not very well"https://t.co/wyeDQkZSS3— Charlotte Gracias (@CMAGracias) May 30, 2019
SEE ALSO: Julian Assange Now in Hospital Wing, Lawyer Says He’s In Very Poor Health
On April 11, 2019, Assange was rendered by British officials from the Ecuadorian embassy in London and then jailed for 50 weeks in the maximum security prison reserved for convicted murders and terrorists – despite the fact that his only apparent violation was for skipping UK bail in 2012 – a bail charge which was based on a dubious Swedish-issued European Arrest Warrant requesting extradition only for questioning during a previous sexual assault investigation – and not for any criminal charges, as Assange was never charged with any crime in Sweden. Since then, the UN has ruled that his de facto 7 year-long imprisonment in the Ecuadorian embassy equates to arbitrary detention by the US and British governments. Critics maintain that his treatment by colluding governments is purely political and designed to render him to the United States. The UN has since demanded his immediate release from Belmarsh Prison.
Back in 2012, Assange applied for political asylum with Ecuador because of information the WikiLeaks legal team had at the time which indicated there was secret Grand Jury being assembled in eastern Virginia which would trigger an extradition order to the US from the Sweden, where Assange would be tried under the Espionage Act of 1917. Their fears turned out to be correct when it was finally revealed that a back room deal had already been done between Five Eyes partners US and UK to send Assange to the US once he was captured by UK authorities. As WikiLeaks had predicted, there was in fact an extradition request from Washington to UK – filed the day of his arrest – a move clearly organised well in advance and away from any media scrutiny.
For further information of Julian Assange and his case please visit Defend WikiLeaks
READ MORE ASSANGE NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Assange/Wikileaks Files
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