Solitary confinement is torture. It is torture when it is used in prisons, against adults and teenagers like Kalief Browder. It was torture when it was imposed on Chelsea Manning, and it is torture that is now being applied to WikiLeaks Editor-In-Chief Julian Assange.
What exactly constitutes torture, and why does solitary confinement fall under its definition? The term is defined in the online
Oxford English Dictionary thus: "1. The action or practice of
inflicting severe pain on someone as a punishment or in order to force them to do or say something. Eg: 'the torture of political prisoners,' or 'confessions extracted under torture.'
1.1. Great physical or mental suffering. 1.2. A cause of great physical or mental suffering."
Clearly, by this standard Julian Assange is experiencing torture in the form of great mental and physical suffering stemming from his long-term, indefinite confinement without medical care, now exacerbated by Ecuador's imposition of near-complete social isolation.
Assange was already facing the beginning of his
sixth year spent in arbitrary confinement in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London before Ecuador's implementation of total isolation. The lengthy period of arbitrary confinement followed approximately two years under house arrest. Wikileaks recently likened Assange's current circumstances to solitary confinement on
Twitter:
Comment: Lying seems to be as natural to Clapper as breathing.