Four years after the imprisonment of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, Reporters Without Borders is calling on the US to drop its extradition request. “We are again calling on the US government to close the case and allow the release without further delay,” said Rebecca Vincent, the London representative of the press freedom organization, the German Press Agency. The April 11 anniversary of Assange’s imprisonment coincides with the arrival of US President Joe Biden in the UK.
The US accuses Assange of stealing and publishing classified material from military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and endangering the lives of informants. Supporters see him as a courageous journalist who exposed war crimes. The legal tug of war over Assange’s possible extradition to the United States has dragged on for years. The British government has given the green light for the extradition in principle, but Assange and his supporters want to use other legal options to lodge an objection.
Assange has been in prison for four long years, although he has not been convicted, criticized Vincent. “We are concerned for his safety and well-being in prison where his physical and mental health remains at very high risk.”
According to Julian Assange’s wife, the Wikileaks founder is increasingly suffering from years of incarceration in a London high-security prison. “His physical condition is getting worse every day because that’s what happens when you lock up a person for up to 20 hours a day, restricting visits and treating their well-being in a cruel way,” Stella Assange told reporters on Tuesday last week Belmarsh Prison, where Assange has now been imprisoned for around four years. “But he’s trying not to give up and keep fighting.”
