“Mr. Assange isn’t a criminal convict and poses no danger to anybody, therefore his prolonged solitary confinement at a top security prison is neither necessary nor proportionate and obviously lacks any legal foundation”, stated Nils Melzer, UN Special Rapporteur on torture.
The WikiLeaks creator was arrested since 2010 following his website published classified diplomatic info.
The UN specialist made the telephone aboard reports that 65 of several 160 Belmarsh offenders have contracted the coronavirus, such as some at the wing in which Mr. Assange has been held.
Additionally, given his preexisting health illness, Mr. Melzer expressed special concern regarding COVID-19 exposure.
“Prison decongestion steps seen around the planet in reaction to COVID-19 ought to be extended to all offenders whose imprisonment isn’t absolutely mandatory”, the Special Rapporteur said. “First and foremost, the other non-custodial measures ought to be extended to people with particular vulnerabilities, such as Mr. Assange, that suffers from a preexisting respiratory health state”.
A history of Behavior
In an opinion rendered in December 2015, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention discovered that because his arrest on 7 December 2010,” Mr. Assange was exposed to several types of arbitrary deprivation of liberty, such as 10 times in London’s Wandsworth prison; 550 times of house arrest; and nearly seven decades of self-confinement from the Ecuadorian Embassy at London, under threat of arrest when he abandoned the building.
Additionally, since April 2019, Mr. Assange was held in near complete isolation in Belmarsh.
“Now, he’s arrested for purely preventative functions, to make sure his presence throughout the continuing US extradition trial, a proceeding that might last a long time”.
A telephone for liberty
Against the background of significant dangers connected with his continuing imprisonment and worries over his treatment and conditions of detention, the UN expert revealed past appeals that Mr. Assange be instantly released or put under protected home arrest.
“Mr. Assange’s rights have been badly offended for over a decade”, claimed the Special Rapporteur. “He has to now be permitted to live a normal family, professional and social life, to recuperate his health and also to adequately prepare his defence from the US extradition petition pending against him”.
The specialist also reiterated his call to the British government not to extradite him to the US because of serious human rights issues.
Special Rapporteurs are made from the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council to test and report back to a particular human rights motif or a nation situation. The specialists aren’t UN employees, nor are they compensated for their own work.
