Julian Assange Appears Frail in London Hearing
HAVANA TIMES – In London, lawyers for WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange are warning of a blow to press freedom worldwide after a court denied Assange’s request for a delay in his U.S. extradition hearing scheduled for February.
Assange, who’s been jailed by British authorities since he was dragged out of the Ecuadorian embassy by London police in April, appeared dazed and frail at a court appearance Monday, struggling to say his own name and birthday before telling a judge, “I can’t think properly.”
Human rights groups have warned Assange has suffered “psychological torture” in British custody. This is Nils Melzer, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture, who visited Assange last May in London’s Belmarsh Prison.
Nils Melzer: “I spoke with him for an hour just to get a good first impression. Then we had a physical examination for an hour by our forensic expert, and then we had a two-hour psychiatric examination. And all three of us had the same impression, and, well, I had certainly an impression and the medical doctors had a diagnosis. We all came to the conclusion that he showed all the symptoms that are typical for a person that has been exposed to psychological torture over an extended period of time.”
Julian Assange faces up to 175 years in prison if he’s extradited to the U.S. to face hacking charges and 17 counts of violating the World War One-era Espionage Act.
Gary you are absolutely wrong
WikiLeaks has never published anything was not true and they have won awards for their journalism. That is why they want him silenced. Wake up fascism is creeping into our country
Are we all just going to sit by and, watch this atrocity unfold. That man tried to wake us up to how awful and , corrupt the worlds governments really are.
They say he is suffering well did he think how many lives he impacted and made them suffer when he leaked all the gosdip and trash that led to Trump being elected he deserves what he gets you only reap what you sow Assange