Dr. Lissa Johnson and Patrick Henningsen - The Torture of Julian Assange

Below is an excerpt from the November 23, 2019 Sunday Wire broadcast (Episode #303). Host and journalist Patrick Henningsen talks to Australian Clinical Psychologist Dr. Lissa Johnson about the legal precedent currently being set in the extradition and torture of publisher Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks. Dr. Lissa Johnson is one of sixty doctors who recently signed a letter to the British Home Secretary warning that Assange could die in prison.

From the Sunday Wire show summary: In the first hour, we’re joined by Australian Clinical Psychologist, Dr Lissa Johnson, to discuss the current perilous situation of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and his deteriorating health and suffering due to his unlawful detention in Britain’s Belmarsh Prison at the pleasure of the Queen – and at the behest of the USA.

From the letter:

Concerns of medical doctors about the plight of Mr Julian Assange

Open letter to the UK Home Secretary Priti Patel and Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott

We write this open letter, as medical doctors, to express our serious concerns about the physical and mental health of Julian Assange. Our professional concerns follow publication recently of the harrowing eyewitness accounts of Craig Murray and John Pilger of the case management hearing on Monday 21 October 2019 at Westminster Magistrates Court. The hearing related to the upcoming February 2020 hearing of the request by the US government for Mr Assange’s extradition to the US in relation to his work as a publisher of information, including information about alleged crimes of the US government.

Our concerns were further heightened by the publication on 1 November 2019 of a further report of Nils Melzer, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, in which he stated:

‘Unless the UK urgently changes course and alleviates his inhumane situation, Mr Assange’s continued exposure to arbitrariness and abuse may soon end up costing his life.’ 

Having entered the Ecuadorian Embassy in London on 19 June 2012, Mr Assange sought and was granted political asylum by the Ecuadorian government. On 11 April 2019, he was removed from the Embassy and arrested by the Metropolitan Police. He was subsequently detained in Belmarsh maximum security prison, in what Mr Melzer described as ‘oppressive conditions of isolation and surveillance.’

During the seven years spent in the Embassy in confined living conditions, Mr Assange was visited and examined by a number of experts each of whom expressed alarm at the state of his health and requested that he be allowed access to a hospital. No such access was permitted. Mr Assange was unable to exercise his right to free and necessary expert medical assessment and treatment throughout the seven-year period.