“He is not feeling well today, he is not present,” Edward Fitzgerald said at the start of a hearing at London’s High Court, which will review another court’s rejection of Assange’s request to appeal his extradition to the US.
Assange, 52, spent seven years locked up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London before being arrested in 2019. He has since been held at Belmars maximum security prison in south-east London.
As the hearing approached, his supporters warned of the dangers to Assange’s life. His wife Stella Assange said last week that his health “both physically and mentally is deteriorating”.
Before the trial began today a crowd of people who had gathered outside London’s High Court chanted “Free Julian Assange”.
“We don’t know what to expect, but we’re here because people are watching,” Stella Assange said, calling for protests to continue “until Julian is released.” “Julian needs his freedom, and we all need the truth,” she said at the end of a short speech to the gathered crowd.
Yesterday, Stella Assange told the BBC that she fears her husband will be immediately extradited to the US if the High Court in London rejects his request. “We hope that we will have time to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR)” so that it intervenes in time, he added.
In January 2021, British justice initially ruled in favor of the WikiLeaks founder. Citing Assange’s risk of suicide, Judge Vanessa Barrecher refused to give the go-ahead for his extradition. But this decision was later annulled.
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