Additional strain is being put on WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's health by the lack of time he has with his lawyers to prepare arguments against his extradition to the United States, Renata Avila, a member of the whistleblower's defense team, has told Sputnik
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th January, 2020) Additional strain is being put on WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's health by the lack of time he has with his lawyers to prepare arguments against his extradition to the United States, Renata Avila, a member of the whistleblower's defense team, has told Sputnik.
A UN special rapporteur on torture said last November that the 48-year-old's health had deteriorated since his arrest in London in April to the point where his life was at risk. Assange is being held at a high-security prison ahead of his US extradition hearing but has had little access to his legal team.
"It is evident that his health is deteriorating and we have to add tremendous stress and emotional impact. Not being able to prepare his defense properly, having to prepare his defense in such limited conditions is adding to the situation," Avila said.
The whistleblower had spent seven years confined to the Ecuadorean embassy after being granted political asylum in 2012. He was then forcibly removed from the diplomatic mission and put in prison for flouting bail terms. The United Nations has repeatedly described his captivity as torture.
Avila described the terms of his imprisonment as "precarious" and failing to meet the minimal standards of dignified living. She criticized the United Kingdom for having violated international laws by preventing him from accessing healthcare and other basic rights while still holed up at the embassy.
"It is really sad that the UK with the support of Sweden, with, probably, the pressure of the US, treated one of our most valued journalists as he was a dangerous criminal, and the only crime that Julian has ever committed is journalism," the lawyer added.
Assange is wanted in the United States on 18 counts of conspiring to hack government computers and breaching an espionage law after his website published hundreds of thousands of classified US documents in 2010 that contained evidence of US war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.
