More than 300 Doctors For Assange have written to Home Secretary Priti Patel to not make the U.K. “complicit in the slow-motion execution” of Julian Assange.
Monday, June 13, 2022, Doctors for Assange Statement
Doctors to UK: Assange Extradition
‘Medically & Ethically’ Wrong
Ahead of the U.K. Home Secretary’s decision on whether to extradite Julian Assange to the United States, a group of more than 300 doctors representing 35 countries have told Priti Patel that approving his extradition would be “medically and ethically unacceptable”.
In an open letter sent to the Home Secretary on Friday June 10, and copied to British Prime Minster Boris Johnson, the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice Robert Buckland, the Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong, the doctors draw attention to the fact that Assange suffered a “mini stroke” in October 2021. They note:
“Predictably, Mr Assange’s health has since continued to deteriorate in your custody. In October 2021 Mr. Assange suffered a ‘mini-stroke’… This dramatic deterioration of Mr Assange’s health has not yet been considered in his extradition proceedings. The US assurances accepted by the High Court, therefore, which would form the basis of any extradition approval, are founded upon outdated medical information, rendering them obsolete.”
The doctors charge that any extradition under these circumstances would constitute negligence. They write:
“Under conditions in which the UK legal system has failed to take Mr Assange’s current health status into account, no valid decision regarding his extradition may be made, by yourself or anyone else. Should he come to harm in the US under these circumstances it is you, Home Secretary, who will be left holding the responsibility for that negligent outcome.”
In their letter the group reminds the Home Secretary that they first wrote to her on Friday 22 November 2019, expressing their serious concerns about Julian Assange’s deteriorating health.
Those concerns were subsequently borne out by the testimony of expert witnesses in court during Assange’s extradition proceedings, which led to the denial of his extradition by the original judge on health grounds. That decision was later overturned by a higher court, which referred the decision to Priti Patel in light of US assurances that Julian Assange would not be treated inhumanely.
The doctors write:
“The subsequent ‘assurances’ of the United States government, that Mr Assange would not be treated inhumanly, are worthless given their record of pursuit, persecution and plotted murder of Mr Assange in retaliation for his public interest journalism.”
They conclude:
“Home Secretary, in making your decision as to extradition, do not make yourself, your government, and your country complicit in the slow-motion execution of this award-winning journalist, arguably the foremost publisher of our time. Do not extradite Julian Assange; free him.”
Julian Assange remains in High Security Belmarsh Prison awaiting Priti Patel’s decision, which is due any day.
"#JulianAssange was assessed from a mental health point of view… I gather there's been a diagnosis of stroke, which occurred actually during the [High Court] hearing, that hasn't been addressed."@chesterfieldeva pic.twitter.com/f9T47YsRiP
— Consortium News (@Consortiumnews) March 19, 2022
I think that somehow these evil people should be accountable for their crimes. They should fear the consequences. Now they know having a total impunity. This should change somehow. After all the real power is those who are governed and oppressed, they just dont know it. How about a peaceful demonstration on their home street, no violence, no abuse, only Gandhi-type camping there. Each time eg. Patel goes home, there would be people reminding her of things that matter.
This is simply a slow mental and physical destruction of a once healthy and fit human being who broke no laws. The powers-that-be are not only complicit in (this) murder by degrees, but they are a group of practitioners which might well have come from the middle-ages. The instruments of torture and death might have been refined by the present power elite – better more to impose a terror on any person who might question their power and motives.
“They” will do as they please with Julian Assange, like they have from the start – there will be no justice for such truth tellers and empire exposers. What passes as the left in these dis-united states is virtually silent on this ongoing injustice. I haven’t heard his name mentioned in any of the main stream news sources that most of the liberals I know listen to or watch in quite awhile. I wonder if he will be mentioned when they finally succeed in killing him ?
Something tells me Pratel is not listening to the doctors. She has no scruples.
And no heart either…
Kudos to the brave 300 doctors who dared to speak up and oppose the ridiculous extradition of Julian Assange! When it is the ordinary public that is needed to do the right things, the country and government has gone very wrong.
The Establishment wants Assange to visibly die a slow, tortured death, as an example to anyone who would challenge the Empire.
I’m sure that the American authorities have Julian’s entire life assiduously planned out if their British collaborators extradite him to an American super max: institutional screws torturing him physically every day just because they can, and his intel agency minders torturing him psychologically because that’s their signature role. Chelsea Manning was recently quoted as saying the correctional officers are the greatest perpetrators of violence inside penal institutions, not the inmates. So, that path in Julian’s future is as predictable as a sunny day in Guantanamo, without the boat drinks and shuffleboard. You wouldn’t wish it on a DNC super delegate.
But, what if this Priti Patel, to whom Julian’s future has been entrusted and who can direct him through the door to either the hungry tiger or the lovely lady chooses not the expected tiger, but the lady! After all, he did just marry the mother of his children. Why not opt for life and the well-being of an entire family? What are Julian’s life plans… if he is given back his life? Has he spoken of such things? Or would that be just giving ammunition to his enemies? Dare he say, “I would reconstitute Wiki-leaks?” Frankly, he deserves retirement on a full pension with nothing to do but watch his children grow, but Manning and Snowden have not yet abandoned the quest for truth and justice. I would hope to at least learn of his thoughts from time to time.
Appealing to the humanity of an inhuman sociopath won’t accomplish much but I do applaud the effort.