Stella Assange has urged the Australian government to secure her husband Julian Assange’s release from prison, stressing that he faces a “life and death” reality if he is extradited to the United States.
Stella Assange’s comments, made at the National Press Club on Monday, come after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton both agreed in recent weeks that Assange’s case should be resolved.
“This is a political case and it needs a political solution,” Stella Assange told the National Press Club.
Julian Assange has spent more than 1,500 days in high-security prison in London, facing a threat of being extradited to the United States, where he faces a sentence of 175 years. He faces espionage charges for leaking classified military documents.
Jennifer Robinson, Assange’s lawyer, insisted that Assange has not committed a crime. She also did not rule out a plea deal with US prosecutors to secure his release.
Stella Assange said that if her husband is extradited, “he will be buried in the deepest, darkest hole of the US prison system, isolated forever”.
“That is what is done to defendants in so-called national security cases, even before trial,” she said.
“A 175 year sentence is a living death sentence. A prospect so desperate that the English court found that it would drive him to take his own life, rather than live forever in hell. We must do everything we can to ensure that Julian never, ever, sets foot in a US prison. Extradition in this case is a matter of life and death.”
In her address, Stella Assange described what Julian’s life in London’s Belmarsh prison is currently like. “I can tell you exactly what Julian is doing right now. It is 3am in London. Julian is lying in his cell, probably awake and struggling to fall asleep. It’s where he spends 22 hours a day, every day,” she said. “Julian’s cell is about three by two meters.”
“He has spent 1502 days in a prison cell, with no end in sight, and no way of knowing how many days to count down to a release. Julian will be in that cell indefinitely until he is released.”
She also described taking the couple’s two children to visit their father in prison, standing in endless queues, being sniffed by dogs, and sitting across from him with a heavy table between them.
“At the table, Julian and I are allowed to embrace hello and goodbye. I am allowed to hold his hand across the table. The children climb on him and he reads them stories.”
In a recent significant development, Australia’s high commissioner to the United Kingdom, Stephen Smith, visited Assange at Belmarsh prison in April. It marked the first time an Australian diplomat has visited Assange since 2019.
Meanwhile, in Question Time on Monday, independent MP Andrew Wilkie asked Anthony Albanese why he had not met with Stella Assagne during her visit to parliament house.
“A priority for us is not doing something that is a demonstration, it is doing something that produces an outcome,” he said in response.
Stella Assagne said it is up to the Australian government to secure her husband’s release and stop his extradition to the United States.
“It is important to recognise that Australia plays an important role and can secure Julian’s release,” she said. “Julian’s life is in the hands of the Australian government. It is not my place to tell the Australian government how to do it, but it must be done. Julian has to be released.”
“I place hope in Anthony Albanese’s will to make it happen. I have to. This is the closest we have ever been to securing Julian’s release and I want to encourage and do everything in my power to help that happen.”
You can read Stella Assange’s full speech here: