Saturday, Oscar Grenfell (WSWS) noted, "Today marks 12 months since WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was
arrested by British police and security officers after being illegally
expelled from Ecuador’s London embassy, where he had lived and worked as
a political refugee for seven years." Julian remains behind bars. Why?
Because he's being persecuted. He's not behind bars for any crime. He's not behind bars for skipping bail. He's behind bars because the UK government is persecuting him. He's in Belmarsh prison currently -- where the coronavirus is sweeping through. Is this an attempt by the UK government to kill him?
Is that what they really want? To murder him?
Grenfell notes, "In a phone call to his friend Vaughan Smith on Thursday night, Assange
said he is held in his cell 23-and-a-half hours a day. His half hour of
exercise is in a yard crowded with other prisoners. At least 150 prison
staff members have either been infected with COVID-19 or are
self-isolating. Assange revealed that there have been more deaths of
inmates than the one admitted by prison authorities. He said the virus
was 'ripping through the prison."
Again, is the UK government trying to murder Julian?
Binoy Kampmark (COUNTERPUNCH) observes:
Prisons, featuring high concentrations of people, have become fertile grounds for spreading COVID-19. The March 17 report
by Richard Coker, Professor of Public Health at the London School of
Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, cautioned on how the transmission of the
virus in “congregate settings” typified by “poor sanitation, poor
ventilation, and overcrowding” could lead to overwhelming “a population,
particularly a population with co-morbidities or that is elderly.”
Coker was unequivocal in recommending that unnecessary detention regimes
should be eased. “This should be done before the virus has chance to
enter a detention centre.”
Representatives of the UK penal system have shown varying degrees of
concern. There have even been calls for early release or means by which
prison is avoided as a form of punishment altogether. The UK Prison
Officers’ Association (POA) has urged Prime Minister Boris Johnson to
intervene executively to reduce numbers. The head of the Prison
Governors Association Andrea Albutt has warned
about the dangers posed by current detention arrangements. “We’ve lots
of prisoners, two people in a cell built for one”, citing Swansea as an
example where 80 percent of prisoners were doubled up. “We have that
all across the country.” Far better, she suggested, to reduce the
population. Such a measure “helps stabilise prisons”, “calm prisoners”,
and reduce the staff to prisoner ratio. “If we have less prisoners
doubled [up in cells], it will be easier to isolate those who’ve been
confirmed as having the virus or have the symptoms so we can delay the
spread.”
Those standing by current UK prison guidelines remain defiantly confident that enough is being done. The Ministry of Justice is convinced
that “robust contingency plans” have been put in place prioritising
“the safety of staff, prisoners and visitors.” Procedures dealing with
managing “the outbreak of infectious diseases and prisons” were already
in place, and were being used to identify COVID-19 cases. Sanitising
facilities such as hand washing “are available to prisoners, staff and
visitors and we have worked closely with suppliers to ensure the supply
of soap and cleaning materials.”
The ministry remains unclear on how the principle of social
distancing, one seemingly anathema to the penal system, has been
applied. For her part, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights,
Michelle Bachelet, considers such measures
in crowded, unhygienic facilities “practically impossible”. Undeterred
by such observations, the MOJ merely refers to a temporary suspension
of “the usual regime”, meaning that “prisoners can no longer take part
in usual recreational activities such as using the gym, going to worship
or visiting the library.” Nor can prisoners receive visits. Such
measures are bound to cause ripples of dissatisfaction.
Not much of this impressed the judicial consciousness. Assange’s
legal team were valiant in their efforts to state the obvious. These
were proceedings taking place on the third day of the country’s
coronavirus lockdown. Edward Fitzgerald QC, sporting a facemask, insisted that,
“These [medical] experts consider that he is particularly at risk of
developing coronavirus and, if he does, that it develops into very
severe complications for him… If he does develop critical symptoms it
would be very doubtful that Belmarsh would be able to cope with his
condition.” Prisons were “epidemiological pumps”, fertile grounds for
the transmission of disease, and Assange’s continued detention posed
endangering circumstances “from which he cannot escape.”
Julian is being held for no legal reason. This is persecution and the British government gets away with it. We shouldn't let them. They need to be mocked, they need to be called out and we all need to make clear that they do not practice justice in the United Kingdom.
This is about Julian's life. Kevin Gosztola (SHADOW PROOF) notes:
Assange’s legal team have feared for his
survival ever since he was confined at Belmarsh, but the coronavirus
represents a new threat to his life.
More than 60 medical doctors have condemned
the “torture and medical neglect of Assange” and urged the Australian
government to intervene in order to protect the health of one of their
citizens.
Over 1200 journalists from 98 countries have united to protest the “gross miscarriage of justice” that is unfolding.
Italian journalist Stefania Maurizi, who was targeted by the CIA-backed espionage operation, believes only public pressure will save Assange.
“What I have seen in this case is
completely unacceptable, completely incompatible with freedom of the
press in our democratic societies,” Maurizi declared.
Maurizi contends if the U.S.
succeeds in putting Assange on trial, the “whole WikiLeaks team of
journalists,” including Sarah Harrison, who helped Snowden get asylum in
Russia, WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Kristinn Hrafnsson, and Joseph
Farrell, a WikiLeaks ambassador, will be next.
Christine Assange, Julian's mother, asks people to contact their government representatives:
Please help save my sons life..
Julian Assange
*Journalist
* Chronic Lung Condition
*In UK #COVID19 infected prison
Please phone/email YOUR UK/OZ/US MP/Congress Rep
Release him to home detention NOW!
Many thanks/Please share widely