The WikiLeaks publisher has been put under 24-hour lockdown in Belmarsh, his wife reports
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has tested positive for Covid-19 and is being held in total isolation at Belmarsh prison as he continues to fight extradition to the US, his wife Stella told the media on Monday.
“The next few days will be crucial for his overall health“, the lawyer, who married Assange in March, told reporters, adding “He is now locked in his cell 24 hours a day.” Assange fell ill on Friday with a cough and fever and was given paracetamol before testing positive for the virus the following day, she said.
The Australian native applied in early 2020 to be released on bail due to a chronic lung condition he has suffered from for over a decade, which placed him in a high-risk category for Covid-19 infection. But his request was rejected, and a British court ruled earlier this year that he can be extradited to the United States to face espionage and hacking charges for making classified Pentagon documents public.
The WikiLeaks publisher’s health has suffered noticeably during his imprisonment in Belmarsh, where he has been held since the Ecuadorian government revoked his asylum status in 2019. He lost a significant amount of weight and the ability to speak coherently after his incarceration, leading prison authorities to move him to the hospital. In December, he suffered a stroke that left him with a drooping eyelid, memory problems and apparent neurological damage, according to his wife, who said the incident was triggered by the stress of ongoing extradition proceedings.
Before his arrest, Assange spent seven years under de facto house arrest in London’s Ecuadorian embassy, having fled there to avoid extradition to Sweden on sex crime charges that have since been dropped. While he has long since served time for the only charge brought against him in Britain – the bail application relating to the defunct Swedish case – he remains in custody awaiting extradition to the US.
While a UK court initially ruled in his favor against extradition and agreed with his lawyers that he should be held in conditions in the US that could easily provoke suicide, that ruling was reversed last year.
Assange faces up to 175 years in prison on charges that he leaked classified documents he received from a US Army analyst regarding the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Wikileaks supporters have argued that he was merely practicing journalism by publishing the documents, which were redacted to remove some sensitive information, and accused Washington of retaliating against the outlet for exposing its own war crimes.
Source: sn.dk