LONDON, Feb 18, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – More than 100 doctors on Monday called on
Britain to end Julian Assange’s “torture” in prison pending his extradition
on espionage charges to the United States.
The 48-year-old Australian is facing 18 counts in the United States — 17
of them under the Espionage Act — that could see him jailed for 175 years.
Washington’s extradition request will start being heard next Monday at
Woolwich Crown Court. Assange is being held at the neighbouring high-security
Belmarsh Prison.
A group of 117 physicians and psychologists from 18 nations wrote in a
letter to The Lancet medical journal that Assange was being subjected to
“torture” in prison.
“We condemn the torture of Assange. We condemn the denial of his
fundamental right to appropriate healthcare,” they wrote in the scientific
magazine.
“Since doctors first began assessing Mr Assange in the Ecuadorian Embassy
in 2015, expert medical opinion and doctors’ urgent recommendations have been
consistently ignored.”
UN special rapporteur on torture Nils Melzer has repeatedly warned that
Assange has begun to exhibit signs of psychological torture.
Assange was briefly transferred from prison to a medical facility last year
because of his frail health.
London’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court has also been forced to postpone a
series of preliminary hearings because of Assange’s inability to make an
appearance by video link.
“Our appeals are simple: we are calling upon governments to end the torture
of Mr Assange and ensure his access to the best available healthcare, before
it is too late,” the group of doctors said.
– Media petition –
Assange’s seven-year hideout in Ecuador’s London embassy dramatically ended
when British police dragged him out and arrested him on a US extradition
request last April.
He was intially wanted in Sweden in connection with a rape investigation
that has now been formally dropped.
But Assange had long suspected that he would eventually be sought by
Washington for his decision to publish a trove of classified Pentagon
documents detailing alleged US war crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq.
His supporters view him as a fearless exposer of injustices such as torture
and alleged war crimes committed by US forces and then covered up.
Assange’s critics accuse him of cosying up to authoritarian leaders such as
Russian President Vladimir Putin and putting lives at risk by exposing the
names of both US operatives and their foreign informants.
The Reporters Without Borders (RSF) media freedoms group posted a separate
petition Monday, accusing President Donald Trump’s administration of acting
in “retaliation for (Assange’s) facilitating major revelations in the
international media about the way the United States conducted its wars”.
“The publication of these documents by media outlets was clearly in the
public interest, and not an act of espionage,” the online petition says.
“Julian Assange’s contribution to journalism is undeniable.”
The petition had been signed nearly 20,000 times by Monday afternoon.