A Dehumanising Treatment?

On Wednesday 23rd of May 2022, Julian Assange, an Australian journalist, and activist, had his wedding ceremony in the Belmarsh jail, where he has been imprisoned since April 2019, for publishing a series of leaks provided by U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning. The leaks included the Baghdad airstrike Collateral Murder video of April 2010, the Afghanistan war logs in July 2010, the October Iraq war logs, and the November 2010 Cablegate. Those documents were exposed on WikiLeaks which Assange is the founder of. Before being jailed in Belmarsh, he was granted asylum in the Ecuadorian Ambassy of London in 2012, where his mental health was deeply affected and was at risk of suicide caused by isolation, for almost a decade, he was not allowed to set foot out of the Ambassy for the simple reason that he would immediately get arrested.

However, this did build meaningful relationships, his wife, Stella Moris is a lawyer who started working in his legal team since 2011, their relationship started in 2015, and they are now parents of two kids. Although the wedding was during visiting hours, Assange and Moris were not granted permission to see each other, and only a handful of friends and family members were invited, specifically four guests, two witnesses, as well as two security guards, there were also lots of supporters outside the prison. Assange was also not permitted to have photos taken of him in a British High Security prison because it was deemed a “security risk” by UK authorities, but it is said that he was wearing a kilt, designed by top British fashion designer Vivienne Westwood who also made the bride’s dress. At the end of the ceremony, Stella Moris Assange cut the cake, and gave a speech, here are some of the words that was said: "I am very happy and very sad. I love Julian with all my heart, and I wish he were here,"

"You know what we are going through is cruel and inhuman,"

"The love that we have for each other carries us through this situation and any other that will come. He is the most amazing person in the world. He is wonderful and he should be free."

Many people share this opinion, that Julian Assange is receiving inhuman treatment. On May 23rd, 2019, editors from newspapers, including The Washington Post and The New York Times, as well as press freedom organisations, criticised the government's decision to charge Assange under the Espionage Act, characterising it as an attack on the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, which guarantees freedom of the press, also, on January 6 of 2021, Assange was denied bail, pending an appeal by the United States, on December 10 of the same year, the High Court in London ruled that Assange could be extradited to the US to face the charges, and finally, followed by 2022, in March, the UK Supreme Court refused Assange permission to appeal. A few took to Twitter to compare this case to Alexei Navalny’s treatment in Russian prison, where he has “a Twitter account which he uses daily, can be seen in videos and photos attending court hearing, is permitted to give interviews to western media (NYT, Time), authored a speech delivered at the October 2021 Oslo Freedom Forum.” Glenn Greenwald also states “Last February, every major press freedom and civil liberties groups, including ACLU, united to condemn the Assange prosecution on the grounds it constitutes a grave danger to core press freedom. That plea was ignored so this ‘grave assault’ continues.”

So, where do we go from there? How and when do we realise if we’re crossing the line and going further into dehumanising?