The United Nations special rapporteur on torture reiterated Friday a warning that Julian Assange’s life is at risk and said the WikiLeaks founder must not be extradited to the United States as a consequence of “exposing serious governmental misconduct.”
“While the U.S. government prosecutes Mr. Assange for publishing information about serious human rights violations, including torture and murder, the officials responsible for these crimes continue to enjoy impunity,” said special rapporteur Nils Melzer in a new statement.
Free press advocates see Assange as victim of an unprecedented assault on journalism because the WikiLeaks publisher faces 18 charges in the U.S. under the Espionage Act—making Assange the first publisher to face charges under that law. Currently in London’s Belmarsh prison for skipping bail seven years ago when he first took refuge at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, Assange last month lost a bid to postpone his U.S. extradition hearing in February.
Melzer’s new comments come five months after he visited Assange in prison and said Assange exhibited “all symptoms typical for prolonged exposure to psychological torture.” But warnings about Assange’s treatment, the U.N. expert said, went unheeded.
The U.K. government has shown “outright contempt for Mr. Assange’s rights and integrity,” said Melzer, and failed to take “any measures of investigation, prevention, and redress required under international law.”
Assange has also not been given his right to prepare his defense, Melzer said, because his “access to legal counsel and documents has been severely obstructed.”
“In a cursory response sent nearly five months after my visit, the U.K. government flatly rejected my findings, without indicating any willingness to consider my recommendations, let alone to implement them, or even provide the additional information requested,” said Melzer.
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