Top UN anti-torture expert demands UK ‘immediately’ releases WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange from Belmarsh prison ahead of his extradition hearing
- Top UN anti-torture expert urged Britain to release Julian Assange from prison
- Assange was first arrested in the UK in 2010 and is now being held in Belmarsh
- He is wanted in US for conspiring to disclose national security information
A top UN human rights expert last night urged Britain to ‘immediately’ release WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange from prison while he awaits a decision on his extradition to the US.
Nils Melzer, the UN special rapporteur on torture, demanded an end to Assange’s decade-long ‘arbitrary detention’.
He argued that the 49-year-old Australian was being held ‘for exclusively preventative purposes’, and called his imprisonment in Belmarsh ‘neither necessary nor proportionate’ and unlawful.
Assange was first arrested in the UK in December 2010 on the basis of a warrant issued by Sweden in connection with allegations of sexual misconduct that have since been formally dropped.
In 2012, while on bail, Assange dodged an extradition attempt by Sweden by claiming political asylum in Ecuador’s embassy in London.
The WikiLeaks founder remained in the small diplomatic mission for seven years and the Swedish charges were later dropped.
But he was turned over to British police in April 2019 after a change of government in Quito, and jailed for having skipped bail. Washington DC then served a formal extradition request.
Assange is currently being held in the top-security Belmarsh jail in London waiting the next hearing, due to be held on January 4 of next year, on the US extradition request.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is seen in a police van, after he was arrested by British police while hiding in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London in April 2019
He faces 18 charges relating to the 2010 release by WikiLeaks of 500,000 secret files detailing aspects of US military campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The indictment alleges that Assange plotted to hack computers and conspired with army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to obtain and disclose national defence information.
If convicted, Assange faces a possible penalty of 175 years in jail.
In a statement release last night, Mr Melzer argued: ‘The British authorities initially detained Mr. Assange on the basis of an arrest warrant issued by Sweden in connection with allegations of sexual misconduct that have since been formally dropped due to lack of evidence.
‘Today, he is detained for exclusively preventative purposes.
‘Mr Assange is not a criminal convict and poses no threat to anyone, so his prolonged solitary confinement in a high-security prison is neither necessary nor proportionate and clearly lacks any legal basis.’
Nils Melzer, the UN special rapporteur on torture, demanded an end to Assange’s decade-long ‘arbitrary detention’. He argued that the 49-year-old Australian was being held ‘for exclusively preventative purposes’, and called his imprisonment in Belmarsh unlawful
Assange faces 18 charges in the US relating to the 2010 release by WikiLeaks of 500,000 secret files detailing aspects of military campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq (Above, a court sketch of Assange at the Old Bailey during a hearing in his extradition battle)
Mr Melzer said the ‘progressively severe suffering inflicted’ on Assange ‘amounts not only to arbitrary detention, but also to torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment’.
The UN anti-torture expert said that Assange, ‘who suffers from a pre-existing respiratory health condition’, should be released from prison during the coronavirus pandemic.
He added former computer hacker could potentially be placed under guarded house arrest.
‘Mr Assange’s rights have been severely violated for more than a decade,’ he said.
‘He must now be allowed to live a normal family, social and professional life, to recover his health and to adequately prepare his defence against the US extradition request pending against him.’
Assange should not be extradited to the United States due to serious human rights concerns, the UN rights expert also said.