The spouse of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has opened up in regards to the harsh actuality her husband experiences day-after-day, as the specter of a 175-year jail sentence looms, and the way their household manages to spend restricted however high quality time with him.
“He’s gone through two pairs of sneakers, walking the European continent in his cell,” Stella Assange informed the National Press Club, claiming when Mr Assange wakes up in his 3x2m jail cell, he turns to the map of Europe on his wall.
She stated he has the distances to his favorite cities mapped out, and though he’s remoted and confined, he walks the gap to Brussels, Venice and Lisbon round his cell.
“He reads to keep his mind busy, to fight the crushing sense of isolation and of time wasting away.
“He has spent 1502 days in this prison cell.”
Mr Assange continues to face the specter of extradition to the United States over leaked details about the US’ actions in Afghanistan and Iraq revealed on WikiLeaks in 2010-2011.
He was arrested in 2019 and is now being held in Belmarsh jail in London to await his destiny.
Speaking of the troublesome course of she and her kids take to go to Julian in jail, Ms Assange remincised on her husband’s time rising up in Australia, together with the occasions he would log on at Byron Bay as a teen, or biking in Melbourne.
“He tells our children how he would catch yabbies and go fishing for flathead and blackfish with his grandfather, or how he hand raised a fledgling rainbow lorikeet when he was 13,” she stated.
“That is how I imagine him when he is free. Not behind the cold, blue glare of a computer screen.
“Although it is my first time coming to Australia, I do not feel like a stranger on these shores,” she stated.
“I have mixed emotions about being here, because I had always imagined my first visit to be with my husband and children.”
A lawyer and human rights defender, Ms Assange thanked each Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton for his or her public help, however pleaded for the US authorities to drop the costs in opposition to her husband.
“A 175-year sentence is a living death sentence,” she stated.
“A prospect so desperate that the English court found that it would drive him to take his own life rather than live forever in hell. We must do everything we can to ensure that Julian never, ever sets foot in a US prison.
“We are now in the endgame. Julian needs his freedom immediately and Australia plays a crucial role in ensuring his release.
“If Julian is extradited, he’ll be buried in the deepest, darkest quality of the US prison system. Isolated forever.
“Julian is being used as a deterrent to bully journalists into submission. The case against him sends the message that each of you in this room are fair game.”
Human rights lawyer Jennifer Robinson stated the opportunity of one other Trump administration can be regarding for Mr Assange’s case.
“What will happen, if we see another Trump Administration, is concerning for all of the news media,” Ms Robinson stated.
“Given that this is a prosecution that was opened by the Trump administration, we are concerned about press freedom.”
She stated Julian’s prosecution would have a unbroken affect on Australia’s relationship with the United States.
“It is getting in the way of the US-Australia relationship, which is an important one, but if we can resolve this case, that’s all the better for our relationship.”
Ms Assange stated though her husband wakes up on the identical flat, concrete flooring, that is the closest he has ever been to freedom.
“I place hope in Anthony Albanese’s will to make it happen; I have to,” she stated.
“This is the closest we have ever been to securing Julian’s release.
“I want to encourage and do everything in my power to help that happen.”
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
