January 01, 2020

Anna Murray 

The Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange, is currently jailed at Belmarsh Prison in southeast London. On December 24, Assange revealed his worsening health condition in his phone call with his journalist friend Vaughan Smith on Christmas Eve. The phone call was served as a Christmas treat for all prisoners. Mr. Smith revealed Assange’s claim of slowly dying in his solitary confinement 23 hours a day and expressed his concern for Assange’s deteriorating health to the press.

The controversy started in 2006 when Assange created Wikileaks with a group of activists and IT experts to provide a secure way for whistleblowers to leak information. In March 2010, the US alleged Assange engaged in a conspiracy to hack a classified US government computer with former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning. In July 2010, Wikileaks started releasing tens of thousands of top secret documents, including classified US military files of Afghan and Iraq.

In August 2010, on a 10-day trip to Stockholm, Assange was questioned by Stockholm police with the allegations in separate instances by 2 Swedish women of having non-consensual sex. However, Assange was permitted by Swedish authorities to fly back to the UK. In November 2010, a Swedish court ruled and issued an international arrest warrant through Interpol that Assange should be detained for questioning on suspicion of rape, sexual molestation, and unlawful coercion.

A court document revealed in November 2018 that US Justice Department had put Assange charged in secret.

After hiding in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden over his sex offense allegations, Assange was arrested and found guilty of breaching his bail terms on April 12 of 2019 by the Westminster Magistrates Court and sentenced to 11 months in jail on May 1. Nonetheless, in November 2019, Swedish prosecutors dropped the alleged rape investigation against him.

On November 25, British Home Secretary Priti Patel received a letter from 65 doctors from the UK, Australia, Europe, and Sri Lanka which stated Assange could die at Belmarsh Prison and urged he receive urgent medical care to stand trial.

Assange remains to fight extradition to the US. His full extradition hearing is scheduled at Belmarsh Magistrates Court on February 24, 2020. There will be a reported administrative hearing at Westminster Magistrates Court on January 18.

Photo:Webshot.