Julian Assange Life At Risk In Prison, Claims Pamela Anderson

The health of former Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is causing concern for one of his closest friends, former Baywatch star Pamela Anderson.

Speaking on ‘Good Morning Britain’ on Monday, Anderson called on British authorities to release Assange from prison and said that his life “was at risk” and he is “unhealthy” in captivity.

In May this year Assange was too ill to appear via video link in a court room hearing to discuss his extradition to the United States. He had reportedly been moved to the hospital wing of the Belmarsh high security prison in London.

Pamela Anderson

A video of the Good Morning interview with Piers Morgan and Susana Reid can be found here.

Anderson says Assange was right to seek asylum when he fled to the Ecuadorian Embassy in Knightsbridge in June 2012.

But seven years later Ecuador withdrew its protection of Assange, and he was then arrested by British police.

“He was right seeking asylum because everything he said was going to happen, happened,” Anderson, 50, said.

Anderson told the TV hosts that she believes Assange has been “psychologically tortured” in prison and that “he’s just a fantastic guy,” she said. “I saw him, he hugged me and picked me up off the ground. He’s still this testament of human spirit.”

When asked what the visit was like, she replied, “I went to visit him in prison. That’s not somewhere you want to leave a dear friend. I care a great deal about Julian. I think he has been psychologically tortured.”

She also said his life was at risk and that he should be sent to Canada, rather than the United States.

“I just want people to understand that this is a good person who has dedicated himself to telling the truth to the public, which we deserve to know,” she said. “Exposing war crimes and the people he’s exposed haven’t faced any penalty. But he’s sitting in prison because there are obviously more stories to keep.”

US extradition

In June then Home Secretary Sajid Javid signed a US request for Julian Assange to be extradited to the America.

The US Justice Department had hit Assange with 17 new charges, accusing him of violating the Espionage Act after he received and unlawfully published the names of classified sources.

These new US charges are extremely serious for Assange, as he had originally been facing roughly five years in prison in the US on the original conspiracy to commit computer intrusion charge.

But now many of these new charges could each entail jail terms of five to 10 years, meaning Assange could face decades in prison if convicted.

But first Assange must serve a 50 week sentence at Belmarsh prison for breaching the Bail Act.

Assange had fled to the Ecuadorian Embassy in Knightsbridge in June 2012, after he lost his final plea to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he had faced allegations of raping a woman and sexually molesting and coercing another in Stockholm in August 2010.

Those charges were dropped in 2015, but now Swedish authorities are once again seeking his extradition, after they reopened an investigation into the 2010 rape allegation.

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