Concerns raised about Julian Assange's health as Londoners show solidarity
Ahmed Kaballo
Press TV, London
More than 60 doctors wrote an open letter saying Julian Assange’s health is so bad that the WikiLeaks founder could die inside Belmarsh maximum-security prison in southeast London.
The 48-year-old is currently fighting a US bid to extradite him from Britain on charges filed under the Espionage Act that could see him given a sentence of up to 175 years in a US prison.
In the letter to the British home secretary, Priti Patel, the doctors called for Assange to be moved from Belmarsh to a university teaching hospital. They based their assessment on “harrowing eyewitness accounts” of his 21st October court appearance in London and a 1st November report by Nils Melzer, the United Nations special rapporteur on torture. The UN representative was very critical of the UK government's treatment of Assange.
Press TV spoke with Mr. Melzer on Thursday at the 'Free the Truth' event organized in defense of Julian Assange.
Speakers at the event included world-renowned journalist John Pilger who had visited Assange at the maximum-security prison on Thursday and hip hop artist Lowkey who argued that December 12th was an opportunity to support Assange by electing Jeremy Corbyn as the British Prime Minister.
Assange used WikiLeaks to publish classified military and diplomatic files about US bombing campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq that proved highly embarrassing to the US and were seen in eyes of many as evidence of Washington's war crimes.
For WikiLeaks supporters it's a huge injustice that as a result of their exposes that were published in much of the Western mainstream media, Assange is locked up UK prison cell with his health rapidly deteriorating and facing extradition to the United States whilst those accused of committing the war crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq walk freely.
While Julian Assange languishes in Belmarsh Maximum Security prison facing extradition for exposing US war crimes, attendees packed this church hall in London to show their solidarity with the UK's most famous political prisoner.
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