Tag Archives: Belmarsh prison

Both Tortuous and Torturous, by Craig Murray

Posted on January 7, 2021 | Leave a comment

Julian Assange is still stuck in Belmarsh. From Craig Murray at antiwar.com:

Magistrate Vanessa Bararitser walked into Westminster Magistrates Court No.1 at 10.12am this morning with the sunniest smile and most carefree disposition I have ever seen her adopt. Her shoulders appeared visibly lifted. She positively beamed at Clair Dobbin, counsel for the US government, as she invited her to put the case for the prosecution as to why Julian Assange should not be released on bail.

Mrs. Dobbin has one of those gloomy, Presbyterian personalities that only fully comes to life when it has the chance to condemn somebody. There is nothing like a flat Belfast accent for a really rousing condemnation, and this was a collector’s item.

Julian Assange, she stated in tones that made plain she considered that name in itself to be suspicious and unsavory, had shown he would go to great lengths to avoid extradition to the United States. The judgment against his extradition turned only on one single point – that of his mental health – and that single point might easily be overturned by the High Court.

Assange had helped Edward Snowden to flee justice; he had boasted about it. As detailed in the US Government’s second superseding indictment, he had organized flights for Snowden and arranged a distraction operation to throw the CIA off the scent. When the US authorities had trapped Snowden in Russia by canceling his passport, Assange had tried to arrange not just private jets but even Presidential jets to help Snowden escape further. Such was Assange’s reach and ability.

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Why Julian Assange must urgently be freed, by Stella Moris

Posted on May 2, 2020 | 1 comment

Stella Moris is Julian Assange’s partner and they have two children. From Moris at english.elpais.com:

I want my children to believe that inequitable treatment is not tolerated in mature democracies

The life of my partner, Julian Assange, is at severe risk. He is on remand at HMP Belmarsh, and Covid-19 is spreading within its walls.

Julian and I have two little boys. Since becoming a mother, I have been reflecting on my own childhood.

My parents are European, but when I was little we lived in Botswana, five miles from the border with Apartheid South Africa. Many of my parents’ friends came from across the border: writers, painters, conscientious objectors. It was an unlikely centre for artistic creativity and intellectual exchange.

The history books describe Apartheid as institutional segregation, but it was much more than that. Segregation occurred in broad daylight. The abductions, torture and killings occurred at night.

The foundations of the Apartheid system were precarious, so the regime met ideas of political reform with live ammunition. In June 1985, South African assassination squads crossed the border armed with machine guns, mortars and grenades. As soon as gunfire burst into the night, my parents wrapped me in a blanket. I slept as my parents raced the car to safety. The sound of explosions carried through the capital for the hour and a half that it took to kill twelve people.

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Assange Extradition: The Deadly Magistrate, by Craig Murray

Posted on April 11, 2020 | 4 comments

The British are going to kill Assange before he ever makes it to America. From Craig Murray at antiwar.com:

Mark Sommers QC, the extremely erudite and bookish second counsel for Julian Assange in his extradition hearing, trembled with anger in court. Magistrate Vanessa Baraitser had just made a ruling that the names of Julian Assange’s partner and young children could be published, which she stated was in the interests of “open justice”. His partner had submitted a letter in support of his Covid-19 related bail application (which Baraitser had summarily dismissed) to state he had a family to live with in London. Baraitser said that it was therefore in the interests of open justice that the family’s names be made public, and said that the defense had not convincingly shown this would cause any threat to their security or well-being. It was at this point Sommers barely kept control. He leapt to his feet and gave notice of an appeal to the High Court, asking for a 14 day stay. Baraitser granted four days, until 4 pm on Friday.

I am in lockdown in Edinburgh, but received three separate eye witness reports. They are unanimous that yet again Baraitser entered the court carrying pre-written judgments before hearing oral argument; pre-written judgments she gave no appearance of amending.

There have been two Covid-19 deaths in Belmarsh prison so far. For obvious reasons the disease is ripping through the jail like wildfire. The Department of Justice is admitting to one death, and refuses to give statistics for the number of cases. As even very sick prisoners are not being tested, the figures would arguably not mean much anyway. As the court heard at the bail application, over 150 Belmarsh prison staff are off work self-isolating and the prison is scarcely functioning. It is the most complete definition of lockdown.

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Julian Assange Is Being Tortured To Death, by Mac Slavo

Posted on January 4, 2020 | 2 comments

While the world’s attention is directed elsewhere, Julian Assange is dying at the hands of the British and US governments. From Mac Slavo at shtfplan.com:

A very “sedated” Julian Assange told a friend that he’s dying on Christmas Eve. Because of Assange’s condition during the phone call, concerns about his health have mounted.  His suffering amounts to torture at the hands of government.

Assange’s “crime” was publishing the truth.  He gathered information, none of which was fabricated or fake and published what the government is doing to other countries and the lengths that they’ll go to enslave the masses.  For that “crime”, Assange is being tortured in what can be summed up as a Gulag.   The powers that shouldn’t be don’t want someone who knows the truth to live to tell it, and that’s become painfully obvious.

American Gulag Death Of Jeffrey Epstein: Will Julian Assange Be Next?

The Deep State Is Assassinating Julian Assange

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Visiting Britain’s Political Prisoner, by John Pilger

Posted on December 2, 2019 | Leave a comment

It’s looking dire for Julian Assange. From John Pilger at consortiumnews.com:

“I think I’m going out of my mind,” Julian Assange told John Pilger at Belmarsh Prison. “No you’re not,” Pilger responded. “Look how you frighten them, how powerful you are.”

I set out at dawn. Her Majesty’s Prison Belmarsh is in the flat hinterland of south east London, a ribbon of walls and wire with no horizon. At what is called the visitors centre, I surrendered my passport, wallet, credit cards, medical cards, money, phone, keys, comb, pen, paper.

I need two pairs of glasses. I had to choose which pair stayed behind. I left my reading glasses. From here on, I couldn’t read, just as Julian couldn’t read for the first few weeks of his incarceration. His glasses were sent to him, but inexplicably took months to arrive.

There are large TV screens in the visitors centre. The TV is always on, it seems, and the volume turned up. Game shows, commercials for cars and pizzas and funeral packages, even TED talks, they seem perfect for a prison: like visual valium.

I joined a queue of sad, anxious people, mostly poor women and children, and grandmothers. At the first desk, I was fingerprinted, if that is still the word for biometric testing.

“Both hands, press down!” I was told. A file on me appeared on the screen.

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The Lies About Assange Must Stop Now, by John Pilger

Posted on November 25, 2019 | 2 comments

Many of the organs of the mainstream media have heaped scorn on Julian Assange. Some of them are awakening to the dangers of the US and British governments persecution of Assange and are sounding warnings, but their efforts are hypocritical and too little, too late. From John Pilger at consortiumnews.com:

If Julian Assange were to succumb to the cruelties heaped upon him, week after week, month after month, year upon year, as doctors warn, newspapers like The Guardianwill share the responsibility, writes John Pilger.

Newspapers and other media in the United States and Britain have recently declared a passion for freedom of speech, especially their right to publish freely.  They are worried by the “Assange effect”.  

It is as if the struggle of truth-tellers like Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning is now a warning to them: that the thugs who dragged Assange out of the Ecuadorean embassy in April may one day come for them.

A common refrain was echoed by The Guardian last week. The extradition of Assange, said the paper, “is not a question of how wise Mr. Assange is, still less how likable. It’s not about his character, nor his judgement. It’s a matter of press freedom and the public’s right to know.”  

What The Guardian is trying to do is separate Assange from his landmark achievements, which have both profited The Guardian and exposed its own vulnerability, along with its propensity to suck up to rapacious power and smear those who reveal its double standards.

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International Group Of Doctors Warns Assange Will “Die In Prison” Without Urgent Medical Care, by Tyler Durden

Posted on November 25, 2019 | Leave a comment

Julian Assange dying in prison would not be a displeasing outcome for British and American authorities. From Tyler Durden at zerohedge.com:

With Washington fighting tooth-and-nail to extradite him from the UK, the notion that Wikileaks founder Julian Assange might die in prison is looking increasingly probable. At this point, it’s more a matter of when: A few weeks, or a few decades.

Assange’s health has reportedly deteriorated to such a terrifying degree that a group of 60 doctors have written an open letter warning that they fear the renegade journalist could soon die in a British jail if he doesn’t receive more intensive medical care, the Guardianreports. It’s likely, for example, that he won’t even live long enough to make it to his extradition hearing in February.

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Run! By Karen Kwiatkowski

Posted on October 3, 2019 | Leave a comment

Julian Assange may be dying. If he should die before his extradition hearing, that would be fine with the British and US governments. From Karen Kwiatkowski at lewrockwell.com:

Julian Assange is reported to very thin, very sick and being treated at this point, as little more than a “lab rat” by his state doctors and interrogators at Belmarsh.  Word is that his encryption key ring (with his private keys that unlock his various public keys) has already been extracted, under physical duress, cold, light and noise torture, food deprivation, BZ variants, some experimental, and now that he is very physically weak, PCP.  The arrests have started and they won’t stop until the injured parties –mainly the US government – have satisfied their bloodlust.

If the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of donors of information to Wilikeaks around the world haven’t begun to already, they need to rapidly take cover – legal, physical, operational and otherwise.

The US, its allies and understudies, its lackeys and satraps, both of the state and corporate type, want to know where the leaks are.  And they will find them.

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Assange Behind Bars, by Felicity Ruby

Posted on September 28, 2019 | Leave a comment

This is what happens to true whistleblowers. From Felicity Ruby at arena.org.au:

A visit to Belmarsh maximum-security prison

have only ever known Julian Assange in detention. For nine years now, I have visited him in England bearing Australian news and solidarity. To Ellingham Hall I brought music and chocolate, to the Ecuadorian embassy I brought flannel shirts, Rake, Wizz Fizz and eucalyptus leaves, but to Belmarsh prison you can bring nothing—not a gift, not a book, not a piece of paper. Then I returned to Australia, a country so far away that has abandoned him in almost every respect.

Over the years I have learned to not ask, ‘How are you?’, because it’s bloody obvious how he is: detained, smeared, maligned, unfree, stuck—in ever-narrower, colder, darker and damper tunnels—pursued and punished for publishing. Over the years I’ve learned to not complain of the rain or remark on what a beautiful day it is, because he’s been inside for so long that a blizzard would be a blessing. I’ve also learned that it is not comforting but cruel to speak of sunsets, kookaburras, road trips; it’s not helpful to assure him that, like me and my dog, he will find animal tracks in the bush when he comes home, even though I think it almost every day.

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American Gulag Death of Jeffrey Epstein: Will Julian Assange Be Next? by Mac Slavo

Posted on August 22, 2019 | Leave a comment

If Jeffrey Epstein can allegedly have died in prison while supposedly every effort was being to prevent that, so too can Julian Assange. From Mac Slavo at shtfplan.com:

he death of millionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein behind bars should trigger “system-wide self-reflection” on how prisoners are treated. The Metropolitan Correctional Center “is sort of like an American gulag for people who have not been convicted of anything,” Epstein lawyer Marc Fernich said.

Epstein had at least some dirt on some high-powered people like Bill Clinton and he could very well be dead because he was going to talk.

And another person currently jailed for giving the American public information the United States government desperately wanted to keep secret, is Julian Assange.  His health is failing and the highly dubious death of Jeffrey Epstein in a U.S. maximum-security prison is another strong reason not to extradite Assange into one.

Epstein’s death has gotten his lawyer to speak out about the conditions in American prisons, likening them to the gulags of the Soviet Union. MCC is “institutionally ill-equipped” to deal with someone like Epstein who wouldn’t last long in general population but who isn’t a hardened criminal, Fernich explained to RT.  “This is one of the toughest pre-trial detention facilities in the country. And the conditions are inhumane.” Epstein, he insists, was “presumed innocent,” despite his 2008 conviction for soliciting underage prostitutes – part of a slap-on-the-wrist plea deal the fallout from which culminated in this year’s sex trafficking charges – and should not have been confined in such “barbaric” conditions.

But there is every reason to fear Assange is already in danger, in Belmarsh maximum-security prison, where he is currently incarcerated. Assange did the unthinkable. He exposed the government for what it really is: a corrupt authoritarian entity that firmly believes it has the right to enslave everyone else.  Pressenza wrote: “The Establishment has conspired to reduce his ability to defend himself in court.  I am not convinced it is not conspiring to destroy him.”

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