Assange's Fiancée Says He Lost Weight in British Prison, Looks Unhealthy

LONDON (Sputnik) - Founder of WikiLeaks Julian Assange, who is now awaiting trial in the British maximum security prison in Belmarsh, has lost a lot of weight and looks unhealthy, Assange’s fiancée, Stella Moris, told Sputnik on Monday.

"I saw him in Belmarsh prison on Saturday morning, and he looked very unwell. He has lost a lot of weight. Even though I've seen him regularly, this time he was wearing a T-shirt and I could see how thin his arm was. I was very concerned," Moris said.

At the same time, she noted that Assange is a very strong-willed person and has family that visits and comforts him. He also draws extra strength from the public support he gets, Moris added.

Assange was arrested in London on April 11, 2019, and sentenced to 50 weeks in prison for jumping bail in 2012. He took refuge inside the Ecuadorean embassy in the UK capital to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he was facing sexual assault charges that were later dropped by a Swedish court.

The whistleblower is wanted by the United States on espionage charges after WikiLeaks published thousands of classified documents that shed light on war crimes committed by American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. He faces up to 175 years in solitary confinement inside a top security American prison if convicted in the United States.

Back in January, UK district judge Vanessa Baraitser ruled against extraditing Assange to the US, citing health reasons and the risk of suicide in the US prison system. The judge, however, decided that he must wait in prison for the outcome of a US appeal hearing.

Moris told Sputnik on Saturday that it would be "incomprehensible" if a UK court agreed to extradite Assange given revelations that the CIA was allegedly considering to kidnap and kill the whistleblower back in 2017.