WikiLeaks Editor-in-Chief Says Assange Detention Conditions Worse Than For Terrorists

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 22nd September, 2019) UK authorities are holding WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in conditions worse than for accused terrorists and are preventing him from preparing for the court hearing, WikiLeaks Editor-in-Chief Kristinn Hrafnsson told The Grayzone portal.

"He has no means of preparing his case. He is in isolation for the entire time he has been there, spending most of 24 hours in his cell. Only a few days ago, he could get access to papers pertaining to his case and the lawyers were allowed to bring it to him and leave it there. The British justice system is helping out in making it impossible for Julian to prepare his case," Hrafnsson said.

According to him, most of the time, Assange's detention conditions in Belmarsh Prison have been more severe than for accused terrorists or violent criminals.

If Assange is found guilty, he will face a total of 175 years in prison, Hrafnsson said, adding that the creation of such a precedent must be stopped.

The editor-in-chief also said that he was not very hopeful about some positive scenarios, since the current UK government was "serving the interests of the United States."

Assange was arrested in London on April 11 and thereafter sentenced to 50 weeks in prison for jumping bail back in 2012, when he claimed asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London to avoid being extradited to Sweden over sexual assault charges and possibly being sent to the United States. After Assange's arrest, Washington filed a request asking London to extradite him. Hearings on Assange's extradition case are now scheduled for February 25, 2020.

Assange gained fame after WikiLeaks published a large number of classified documents in 2010, including some that exposed abuses of power and war crimes committed by US forces in Afghanistan and Iraq, and at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.