If Julian Assange still does not know if he will finally be extradited to the United States, he has on the other hand the assurance that he will be able to marry his companion Stella Moris. “Good news: the British government backed down 24 hours before the deadline. Julian and I have permission to get married in Belmarsh prison, ”where he is being held, tweeted the South African lawyer, who had two children with Julian Assange when he was a refugee in the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
“I am relieved but still angry that legal action was needed to put a stop to the illegal interference with our basic right to marry,” she added, after announcing in recent days have initiated proceedings against the authorities’ refusal to allow this union.
The wedding date has not been fixed
According to a spokesperson for the prison administration, “Mr. Assange’s request was received, examined and dealt with in the usual way by the governor of the prison, as with any other inmate.” The date of the wedding has not been set, nor has the UK court ruling on the US appeal against the extradition refusal in January.
At first instance, British justice refused to extradite the 50-year-old Australian because of the risk of suicide if he was handed over to the American authorities. Washington’s appeal was considered in two days of hearings before the High Court in London in late October. Julian Assange is being prosecuted by the American justice system for having disseminated, as of 2010, more than 700,000 classified documents on American military and diplomatic activities, in particular in Iraq and Afghanistan.
He was arrested by British police in April 2019 after spending seven years at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he had taken refuge while on bail. He feared extradition to the United States or Sweden, where he has been the subject of charges for rape, since dropped.