England: Assange 'has become a political prisoner in this country' - Australian MP

M/S Cameras during press briefing outside HM Prison Belmarsh, London
SOT, Andrew Wilkie, Australian MP: "I have no reason to doubt the assessment of the United Nations rapporteur on torture, Niels Melzer, when he said that Julian exhibits the signs of someone who has undergone psychological torture. He's supposedly not in solitary confinement these days but he tells me that he's still spending more than 20 hours a day confined to his room. I think for all intents and purposes a reasonable person would say that is still solitary confinement. He's under a lot of pressure. We spoke about, you know, his family and about the issue, I walk out of Belmarsh in absolutely no doubt that he has become a political prisoner in this country, and that the US is determined to extradite him to the US to get even. And the solution I think must be political. This is madness that the UK is even entertaining having a court case. The UK should be saying, and the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson should be saying to the US president, back off. You know, this is an unreasonable move by the US administration. And I think the Australian prime minister. You know, he says he's a mate of Donald Trump, well he should get on the phone to Donald Trump, he should get on the phone to Boris Johnson and say, you know, this is an Australian citizen, who when you boil it down has done nothing more than act as a journalist and a publisher and publish information in the public interest that includes hard evidence of US war crimes, and it is completely and utterly unacceptable to have him facing 17 counts of espionage and a count of computer hacking. There was no espionage, there was no hacking, there was just a person doing the right thing and publishing important information in the public interest, and frankly, it is an international scandal that he is locked up in there in those conditions as a political prisoner."
W/S Media outside prison
M/S Protesters outside HM Prison Belmarsh
W/S Outside HM Prison Belmarsh
W/S Protesters outside HM Prison Belmarsh
SCRIPT
Australian MP Andrew Wilkie said Julian Assange "has become a political prisoner" in the UK, after visiting the Wikileaks founder in Belmarsh prison in South London on Tuesday.
"I have no reason to doubt the assessment of the United Nations rapporteur on torture, Niels Melzer, when he said that Julian exhibits the signs of someone who has undergone psychological torture," he said. "He's supposedly not in solitary confinement these days but he tells me that he's still spending more than 20 hours a day confined to his room. I think for all intents and purposes a reasonable person would say that is still solitary confinement."
Speaking outside the prison, Wilkie lambasted the UK for its willingness to participate in the US' attempt to extradite him.
"This is madness that the UK is even entertaining having a court case. The UK should be saying, and the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson should be saying to the US president, back off," he said.
Assange extradition hearing to the US is scheduled to begin next week in Woolwich Crown Court. The hearing could see him transferred to the United States where he would face an 18-count indictment for his part in publishing classified information on US military activity during the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.