(London) Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, marries Wednesday with one of his former lawyers, Stella Moris, at the British maximum security prison from where he continues to fight against his extradition to the United States.
Posted at 12:55 p.m.
The union must take place in the early afternoon at Belmarsh prison, in south-east London, in a small committee with only four guests and two witnesses.
Stella Moris arrived around 8:45 a.m. EST wearing a wedding dress designed by Vivienne Westwood and accompanied by the two little boys she had with Julian Assange, in kilts and white shirts. The British designer, very committed to the release of Julian Assange, also designed the kilt worn by the groom – in reference to his Scottish origins.
Caught in a long legal saga, the 50-year-old Australian is wanted by the American justice system, which wants to try him for the dissemination, from 2010, of more than 700,000 classified documents on American military and diplomatic activities, in particular in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Prosecuted in particular under legislation against espionage, Julian Assange faces 175 years in prison, in a case denounced by human rights organizations as a serious attack on freedom of the press.
“This is not a prison wedding, this is a declaration of love and resilience despite prison walls, despite political persecution, despite arbitrary detention, despite the harm and harassment inflicted on Julian and our family, ”wrote Stella Moris in a forum at the Guardian.
PHOTO PETER NICHOLLS, REUTERS
A view shows a placard depicting WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, near bottles of sparkling wine belonging to his supporters, on the day of his and Stella Moris’ wedding at HMP Belmarsh prison, in London, Britain, March 23, 2022. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls
She said prison authorities had refused the proposed witnesses – journalists – as well as the photographer, who also works for the press, even though they were to attend the ceremony “in a private capacity”.
“They want Julian to remain invisible to the public eye at all costs, even on his wedding day, and especially on his wedding day,” his fiancée said, comparing this “logic of making someone disappear in the hope that ‘it will be forgotten’ to ‘what Soviet Russia did’.
A few dozen of their supporters gathered around the prison, hanging yellow ribbons on which one could read “Journalism is not a crime”, or even “release the hostage Assange now”.
Some had also brought bouquets of flowers.
Sadia Kokni, a 41-year-old Londoner, explained to AFP that she had come so that Julian Assange “knows that he has supporters” and “also to show Stella that she is not alone”. She considers that the founder of WikiLeaks “has only exposed the truth” and that his detention is a form of “slow torture”.
“Political Affair”
On March 14, Julian Assange saw one of his last hopes of avoiding his extradition disappear, with the refusal of the British Supreme Court to examine his appeal.
His partner, a South African lawyer in her 30s, has since pleaded with British Home Secretary Priti Patel, who is responsible for approving his extradition, preventing him and ending this “political affair”.
Julian Assange and Stella Moris first met in 2011, when the lawyer was hired to join the legal team fighting the extradition of Julian Assange. Their engagement was announced in November 2021.
Mme Moris had two children with Julian Assange, conceived when he was living at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. The founder of WikiLeaks spent seven years in this embassy where he had taken refuge in 2012 while he was on bail.
He then feared extradition to the United States, or Sweden where he was the subject of rape proceedings since abandoned.
He was finally arrested by British police in April 2019 and imprisoned.
Following the wedding ceremony, Stella Moris will cut a wedding cake and deliver a speech, the Julian Assange Support Group has said.