Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, is getting married this Wednesday, March 23, with one of his former lawyers, Stella Moris, at the British high security prison from where he continues to fight against his extradition to the United States. The union must take place in the early afternoon at Belmarsh prison, in south-east London, in a small committee with only four guests and two witnesses.
Stella Moris arrived at the prison, wearing a wedding dress designed by Vivienne Westwood and accompanied by the two little boys she had with Julian Assange, in kilts and white shirts. The British designer, very committed to the release of Julian Assange, also designed the kilt worn by the groom, in reference to his Scottish origins.
The prison refused all guests
“This is not a prison wedding, this is a declaration of love and resilience despite prison walls, despite political persecution, despite arbitrary detention, despite the harm and harassment inflicted on Julian and our family”, wrote Stella Moris in a forum at the Guardian. She said the prison authorities had refused the proposed witnesses – journalists – as well as the photographer, who also works for the press, even if they were to attend the ceremony “in a private capacity”.
“They want Julian to remain invisible to the public eye at all costs, even on his wedding day, and especially on his wedding day,” his fiancee claimed, comparing this “logic of making someone disappear in the hope that ‘it will be forgotten’ to ‘what Soviet Russia did’.
A few dozen of their supporters gathered around the prison, hanging yellow ribbons on which one could read “Journalism is not a crime”, or “release hostage Assange now”. Some had also brought bouquets of flowers.
Assange faces 150 years in prison in the United States
Caught in a long legal saga, the 50-year-old Australian is wanted by the American courts who want to try him for the dissemination, from 2010, of more than 700,000 classified documents on American military and diplomatic activities, in particular in Iraq. and in Afghanistan. Prosecuted in particular under legislation against espionage, Julian Assange faces 175 years in prison, in a case denounced by human rights organizations as a serious attack on the freedom of the press.
On March 14, Julian Assange saw one of his last hopes of avoiding his extradition disappear, with the refusal of the British Supreme Court to examine his appeal. His partner, a South African lawyer in her 30s, has since pleaded with British Home Secretary Priti Patel, who is responsible for approving his extradition, preventing it and ending this “political affair”.
The couple have two children
Julian Assange and Stella Moris first met in 2011, when the lawyer was hired to join the legal team fighting the extradition of Julian Assange. Their engagement was announced in November 2021. Stella Moris had two children with Julian Assange, conceived when he was living at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. The founder of WikiLeaks spent seven years in this embassy where he took refuge in 2012 while he was on bail.
Following the wedding ceremony, Stella Moris will cut a wedding cake and deliver a speech, the Julian Assange Support Group has said.
Source: Europe1
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