WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange gestured to supporters outside the Ecuadorian embassy in London. (Frank Augstein, Associated Press, Archives)
- WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was allowed to marry in a British prison.
- He will marry Stella Moris, a former member of his legal team.
- Assange is wanted by the United States for leaking classified documents.
The fiancé of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said that British prison authorities have allowed him to marry while in custody because he is waiting for the court to make an important decision on possible US extradition.
Washington wants Assange to face various allegations related to the large-scale leak of classified documents. He plans to marry Stella Morris, a former member of his legal team, with whom he has two children.
He is being held in the Belmarsh High Security Prison in London, and the High Court is preparing to rule on the United States’ appeal against the lower court’s decision to block his extradition.
WikiLeaks said in a statement late on Thursday that the couple had initiated legal proceedings after they were “basically barred from getting married.”
The good news: The British government made concessions 24 hours before the deadline.
Julian and I are now allowed to get married in Belmarsh prison.
I was relieved, but still angry, because legal action must be taken to stop illegal interference with our basic right to marry.#阿桑奇 pic.twitter.com/pevOrfsPzd
-Stella Moris #FreeAssangeNOW (@ StellaMoris1) November 11, 2021
“Good news: the British government made concessions 24 hours before the deadline,” Morris wrote on Twitter, next to a photo of the two standing under a rainbow.
“Julian and I are now allowed to get married in Belmarsh prison.
“I was relieved, but still angry because legal action must be taken to stop illegal interference with our basic right to marry.”
A spokesperson for the Prison Service said: “The warden receives, considers and processes Mr. Assange’s application in the usual way, just like any other prisoner.”
Assange, a 50-year-old Australian national, was arrested in the UK in 2019 for evading bail after spending seven years at the Ecuadorian embassy in London to avoid being extradited to Sweden, where he faced allegations of sexual assault . These were later abandoned.
The US government has filed 18 charges against him, alleging that he is related to 500,000 secret documents released by WikiLeaks in 2010, which detail various aspects of military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.
This could put him in jail for up to 175 years.
