© Julia Quenzler/SWNSOctober 27, 2021: Julian Assange briefly appeared at his court hearing via videolink. Observers said he appeared tired & heavily medicated, often with head in his hands.
"I saw him in Belmarsh prison on Saturday morning, and he looked very unwell. He has lost a lot of weight. Even though I've seen him regularly, this time he was wearing a T-shirt and I could see how thin his arm was. I was very concerned," Moris said.
At the same time, she noted that Assange is a very strong-willed person and has family that visits and comforts him. He also draws extra strength from the public support he gets, Moris added.
Assange was arrested in London on April 11, 2019, and sentenced to 50 weeks in prison for jumping bail in 2012. He took refuge inside the Ecuadorean embassy in the UK capital to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he was facing sexual assault charges that were later dropped by a Swedish court.
The whistleblower is wanted by the United States on espionage charges after WikiLeaks published thousands of classified documents that shed light on war crimes committed by American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. He faces up to 175 years in solitary confinement inside a top security American prison if convicted in the United States.
Back in January, UK district judge Vanessa Baraitser ruled against extraditing Assange to the US, citing health reasons and the risk of suicide in the US prison system. The judge, however, decided that he must wait in prison for the outcome of a US appeal hearing.
Moris told Sputnik on Saturday that it would be "incomprehensible" if a UK court agreed to extradite Assange given revelations that the CIA was allegedly considering to kidnap and kill the whistleblower back in 2017.
Reader Comments
He is gonna lose weight while he is in Belmarsh.
It is all a travesty of justice so much is wrapped up in it.
I want Julian to get to a safe house and I am on record on this....I pray he gets released from his unjust imprisonment.
Pray all you want I suppose, not all prayers get answered.
I reckon that must be the case and I reckon Julian thinks as such and I wouldn't blame him if he took his own life cause then they could torture you no longer - simple as that.
Dear God out there or Goddess as the case may be, please let Mr. Julian Assange be in a safe home cause all he did was speak truth to power and that is not a crime but rather it is something the best of us try to do. So it is a shame, it is ignominy to the highest degree that this truth-teller is imprisoned in the worst the UK has to offer....makes me think the UK is a fallacy. I think it is and its jurisprudence is fixing to be sacrifice at the alter of what - the us dollar or maybe was it something from the holy land.....gracious me - big mistake cause now the uk is no more. begone
The Queen can die but let Julian be free.
Julian Assange committed no offense other than the offense of calling out what is evident with respect to what a few do this day and age, and time has come I reckon Julian would agree that those who perpetuate ongoing suffering of innocence gonna have to get their due. The time has come for that.