WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will marry on March 23 in the London jail where he is confined while the British justice decides on his extradition to the United States, his partner Stella Moris announced today.
The sentimental partner of the Australian journalist reported through Twitter that the authorities of the Belmarsh maximum security prison, southwest of London, scheduled the marriage for 1:00 p.m. local time (same GMT) that day.
The British newspaper Daily Mail detailed, for its part, that the ceremony will be officiated by a Catholic chaplain in the presence of the two children procreated by the couple during the time that the founder of WikiLeaks was in asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, and the prison guards.
Assange will wear a kilt designed for the occasion by British dressmaker and activist Vivienne Westwood, “in honor of her Scottish roots,” the newspaper added.
The Australian journalist has been locked up in Belmarsh since the Government of Ecuador withdrew the diplomatic protection granted to him seven years earlier and allowed the British Police to enter its embassy in London to arrest him on April 11, 2019.
Although he is not charged with any charges after serving a 50-week prison sentence for violating bail in 2012, the British justice decided to keep him locked up until the extradition case presented by the US prosecutor’s office is concluded.
The United States persecutes the cyberactivist for denouncing on WikiLeaks war crimes committed by the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan and publishing thousands of diplomatic cables from that country.
If extradited, the journalist could be sentenced to 175 years in prison, based on the 17 charges of espionage charged against him.
Last December, the London High Court accepted an appeal filed by US prosecutors against the refusal of a trial judge to extradite Assange for fear that he would commit suicide in prison.
The case went to the British Supreme Court, which has not yet ruled on whether or not it will accept the appeal.