London: US actress Pamela Anderson has urged more people to support WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange after visiting him in a London prison where he is awaiting a hearing on a US extradition request.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
"He's an innocent person... He's a good man, he's an incredible person. I love him," Anderson told reporters after she and WikiLeaks editor Kristinn Hrafnsson met Assange at Belmarsh prison.
The US government has accused Australian citizen Assange, 47, of conspiring with former US military intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to leak a trove of classified material in 2010.
He has been held at the prison since police dragged him from the Ecuadorian embassy in London on April 11. He had spent seven years inside the embassy to avoid arrest.
In a brief court appearance via video from the prison last week, Assange confirmed that he opposes his extradition. The case is expected to take up to one year to resolve.
"It's going to be a long fight... and he needs our support. He needs all the support he can get," said Anderson, 51, who befriended Assange during visits to the embassy.
"He's sacrificed so much to bring the truth out," she said, adding that she felt "sick" after meeting Assange in prison.
Anderson left the prison wearing a blanket covered in hand-written text about free speech.
Hrafnsson also said it was "shocking to see my friend - an intellectual, a journalist... sitting in a high-security prison, spending 23 hours a day in a cell".
He said Assange had lost weight but "his spirit is strong".
"Julian Assange is bent but not broken. He is an extraordinarily resilient person," Hrafnsson added. "He knows that he has done nothing wrong."
Anderson was the first prison visitor other than one of Assange's lawyers.
Hrafnsson said Assange was in "general" solitary confinement because he mostly spends 23 hours a day in his cell, adding that the situation was "unacceptable".
The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said in a statement on Friday it was "deeply concerned" about the "disproportionate" sentence imposed on Assange.
"The Working Group is of the view that violating bail is a minor violation that, in the United Kingdom, carries a maximum sentence of 12 months in prison.
"It is worth recalling that the detention and the subsequent bail of Mr Assange in the UK were connected to preliminary investigations initiated in 2010 by a prosecutor in Sweden.
"It is equally worth noting that that prosecutor did not press any charges against Mr Assange and that in 2017, after interviewing him in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, she discontinued investigations and brought an end to the case."
PA
