Julian Assange's father and Chinese dissident artist and human rights activist Ai Weiwei have visited WikiLeaks founder in UK HMP Belmarsh prison in London
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th June, 2019) Julian Assange's father and Chinese dissident artist and human rights activist Ai Weiwei have visited WikiLeaks founder in UK HMP Belmarsh prison in London.Earlier in the day, Assange was subject to a psychiatric and physical examination.
Assange's father John Shipton and Ai Weiwei, famous for investigating Chinese government corruption, arrived at the prison on Tuesday afternoon. The visit was streamed from outside the prison for Sputnik's website.
WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Kristinn Hrafnsson also visited Assange in Belmarsh in early May, along with actress and rights activist Pamela Anderson.
In late May, WikiLeaks voiced concerns about Assange's health, saying that he continued to lose weight and was incapable of maintaining a normal conversation with one of his lawyers. UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment Nils Melzer said after visiting the whistleblower in prison that Assange had been subject to psychological torture for several years.
Assange has been sent to jail for violating his bail conditions in 2012, when he took refuge inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden on sexual assault charges. The whistleblower was arrested in the UK capital on April 11 after Ecuador deprived him of his asylum protection.
Assange is now facing extradition to the United States, where he is wanted for the 2010 leaks of classified government data and has already been indicted on 18 charges bearing an up to 175-year prison term.Sexual charges in Sweden were initially dropped a few years back, but the case was reopened after the WikiLeaks founder's arrest. A court then ruled against requesting extradition.
On June 14, a London court is expected to hold the first hearing on Assange's potential extradition to the United States.
