Julian Assange has been fighting extradition to the United States for years. He has been fighting this battle for four full years from prison. Although the founder of WikiLeaks has not been convicted, he is behind bars - and not in an ordinary prison, but in a maximum security prison, the infamous Belmarsh.
They treat him like a serious criminal
"He has to be in a cell for 20 hours," says wife Stella Assange. It can be in the air for a maximum of one hour. Then he has to take food and eat it alone in a six square cell. "At Belmarsh, it's common for prisoners to be isolated in their cells," she says. How long that treatment will last remains open.
His wife and the father of their two children are allowed to see him 1-2 times a week. Visitors are allowed to stay for 75 minutes.
When she wants to visit her husband in Belmarsh, from the front door to the interview room where she is allowed to sit at the table across from him, she has to give her fingerprints four times and is searched multiple times.
"It's already been four years," she says, "four years of daily struggle on all fronts." Activists for the protection of human rights and media freedom are demanding his release.
Reporters without borders - it can, and it can't with Assange
Last week, the organization "Reporters Without Borders" should have had the opportunity to visit Assange in Belmarsh for the first time. Everything was already scheduled, the visit was approved.
However, at the last moment, the general secretary, Christophe Deloire, and the director of that organization, Rebecca Vincent, were denied access. Assange's supporters consider it a "completely arbitrary decision".
Vincent explained again why her organization is standing up for Assange:
"Julian Assange made a huge contribution to journalism. The release of secret documents was in the public interest. No one should end up in prison just for publishing information in the public interest." Assange has now become the most famous political prisoner in the world.
That Assange is a political prisoner - this is something that his wife Stella has repeatedly emphasized. As a lawyer, she works for only one client: her husband. And he is fighting against being forgotten in prison and failing there physically and mentally.
On her travels and in interviews, she repeatedly tries to draw attention to the Assange case and media freedom:
"If the UK and US are serious about supporting media freedom and standing up for journalists, including their own working in dangerous places around the world, then they need to do the right thing and free Julian," says Stella Assange.
Freedom is not in sight
The next phase of the Assange legal dispute could begin soon. The WikiLeaks founder appears to be far from being released. In the US, where the authorities want to try him for espionage, he faces life imprisonment.
Assange has not been free for more than 10 years, since June 19, 2012, when he sought political asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he was arrested on April 11, 2019, and imprisoned.
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