UN concerned over British
government's failure to investigate whether Assange has been subjected to
psychological torture
UNITED NATIONS special
rapporteur on torture Nils Melzer has written to governments to press them to
investigate properly evidence that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been
subjected to psychological torture.
On December 31 Mr Melzer
shared on Twitter a letter that he had sent to the British government shaming
its failure to address concerns that Mr Assange had been tortured.
(1/6) Just out: My letter to
the #UK Govt of 29 Oct
2019, detailing serious due process violations, expressing alarm at #Assange’s detention
conditions & health, reiterating my queries & calling for his prompt
release. Direct link: http://bit.ly/2ZCygWA (60 days & no
response)
The letter, dated October 29,
did not receive a response. He has also written to the United States, Swedish
and Ecuadorian governments.
The US is seeking Mr Assange’s
extradition to face spying charges. The whistleblower has been detained since
his arrest in April at the Ecuadorean embassy in London. He had been confined
there since 2012 after being granted asylum by the South American country.
At the time Mr Assange was a
wanted man in Sweden, having failed to respond to demands for him to return
there to face questioning over sexual assault charges. He claimed that Sweden
would simply ship him out to a vengeful US, angered by his whistleblowing
activities. The assault charges were eventually dropped.
In his tweet Mr Melzer accused
the British government of “seriously undermining the credibility of the UK’s
commitment to the prohibition of torture and ill-treatment, as well as to the
rule of law more generally.”
He said that “recurring and
serious” due-process violations in Britain have rendered Mr Assange’s case
“inherently arbitrary, to the point of making any legal remedies a pointless
formality devoid of prospect.”
Mr Melzer called on the
government to retract its extradition authorisation and release him from prison
“without further delay.”
Anti-war campaigner John Rees
told the Star yesterday: “Obviously it is a very important intervention from a
very high-authority source, but it is not news to anyone who has visited
Assange in Belmarsh high-security prison, as I have.
“The conditions he is being
kept in are unacceptable and there is absolutely no doubt that the prison
regime is directly causing deterioration of his health.”
Mr Rees said it was Home
Secretary Priti Patel’s responsibility to intervene.
“The judge has already
expressed concern that [Mr Assange’s] legal team are not getting access to
their client,” he said. “Both these things are of the most serious nature, it
jeopardises any fair hearings coming up in February.”
Former Derby North MP Chris
Williamson tweeted: “The UK government’s treatment of Julian Assange continues
to shame Britain.”
Mr Melzer’s call comes as
journalist Vaughan Smith told RT that an “obviously sedated” Mr Assange said he
was “slowly dying here” during a Christmas Eve phone call between the two
friends.
Mr Smith said Mr Assange
sounded like a shell of the man he once.
“His speech was slurred. He
was speaking slowly,” Mr Smith said. “Now, Julian is highly articulate, a very
clear person when he speaks. And he sounded awful. It was very upsetting to
hear him.”
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