US journalist exposes Julian Assange’s prison-like conditions

By Oscar Grenfell 

29 March 2019

Cassandra Fairbanks, a US online journalist, has published an account of a visit she made to Julian Assange on Monday, which confirms that the WikiLeaks publisher is being politically gagged and subjected to conditions in Ecuador’s London embassy that resemble those of a maximum-security prisoner.

Julian Assange

Yesterday marked one year since Ecuadorian authorities severed Assange’s internet access, curtailed his right to receive visitors and banned him from making any political statements, including about his own plight.

The Ecuadorian government, which previously granted Assange political asylum in 2012, has come under intensifying pressure from the US and its allies to force the WikiLeaks founder out of the embassy. Assange would face immediate arrest by British police on trumped-up bail charges, and the prospect of extradition to the US, on manufactured espionage and conspiracy charges that carry maximum sentences of life imprisonment or the death penalty.

Washington has escalated its pursuit of Assange in recent weeks. On March 8, Chelsea Manning was arrested, and jailed indefinitely, for refusing to testify at a closed-door Grand Jury hearing aimed at concocting the charges against Assange.

Manning, who in 2010 courageously leaked US army war logs and diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks exposing Washington’s war crimes and global diplomatic intrigues, was imprisoned for seven years under the Obama administration. Now she has been held in solitary confinement for the past three weeks.

Fairbanks’ article demonstrates that Assange and Manning, whose plight as political prisoners is inextricably linked, are being subjected to similarly punitive conditions.

Fairbanks said it was the third time she had visited Assange over the past year, and “each time the atmosphere seems progressively worse.” She wrote: “When I visited for the first time, which I believe was a year ago to the day, the atmosphere was far more welcoming. The staff and ambassador that were there during my first visit have since been replaced.”

Visitors now are not allowed to keep their phones when they meet with Assange. If they bring a phone to the building, they are compelled to hand it over to Ecuadorian authorities, and provide detailed data, including its serial number and make. Fairbanks said she had been “advised that Ecuador could not be trusted to hold my phone.”

Fairbanks said she was searched after entering the embassy, and directed to a conference room “where two large visible cameras were pointed at the table.” Assange appeared at the room’s door, but was not allowed to enter.

Embassy staff demanded that he submit to an apparently unprecedented full-body metal detector scan before meeting Fairbanks. It appears that this was intended to prevent Assange from bringing any device into the room, such as a radio, which could be used to prevent his conversation from being recorded and monitored by embassy officials.

According to Fairbanks, Assange protested, declaring: “I don’t want to do the body scan. It is undignified and not appropriate. I am just trying to have a private meeting with a journalist.”

Embassy staff shut the door to the conference room. Assange’s lawyers were compelled to undergo a full-body scan before entering and apprising Fairbanks of the situation.

When they left, the door to the conference room was shut. Fairbanks later attempted to leave the room, only to discover that she had been locked in. She was effectively detained for an hour. During that time, Fairbanks said she heard Assange opposing the actions of the embassy staff.

Fairbanks was subsequently released from the room and ushered to the lobby. She said she overheard Assange ask: “Is this a prison? This is how you treat a prisoner, not a political refugee!” The Ecuadorian ambassador, Jaime Alberto Marchán, allegedly responded that the measures were “for our protection and to protect you!”

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/03/29/assa-m29.html