{"id":189078,"date":"2019-05-30T07:37:32","date_gmt":"2019-05-30T07:37:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=189078"},"modified":"2019-06-02T08:29:16","modified_gmt":"2019-06-02T08:29:16","slug":"are-assanges-jailers-trying-to-kill-him-hes-so-ill-he-cant-speak-properly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=189078","title":{"rendered":"Are Assange’s Jailers Trying to Kill Him? He’s so Ill He Can’t Speak Properly"},"content":{"rendered":"

Caitlin Johnstone \u2013 Russia Insider May 29, 2019<\/span><\/a><\/h1>\n
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Assange arrest. Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n

Julian Assange\u2019s Swedish lawyer Per Samuelson has told the press that\u00a0\u201cAssange\u2019s health situation on Friday was such that it was not possible to conduct a normal conversation with him.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

This jarring revelation has been reported by a small handful of outlets, but only as an aside in relation to Sweden refusing Samuelson\u2019s request for a postponement of a scheduled hearing regarding Assange\u2019s detention en absentia for a preliminary investigation of rape allegations.<\/strong>\u00a0The fact that the imprisoned WikiLeaks founder is so ill that he can\u2019t converse lucidly is itself far more significant than the postponement refusal, yet headlines mentioning Samuelson\u2019s statement focus on the Swedish case, de-emphasizing the startling news from his lawyer.<\/span><\/p>\n

As of this writing I\u2019ve been able to find very few news outlets reporting on this at all, the most mainstream being a\u00a0Reuters<\/em>\u00a0article with the very tame headline \u201cSwedish court rejects delay of Assange hearing over ill-health: lawyer<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u201d. The\u00a0Sydney Morning Herald<\/em>\u00a0also covered the story without even mentioning illness in headline, instead going with \u201cSwedish court rejects effort to delay Assange hearing<\/strong><\/span><\/a>\u201d. The much smaller alternative media outlet\u00a0World Socialist Website<\/em>\u00a0has been the only outlet I\u2019ve found so far which reports on Samuelson\u2019s statement in anything resembling its proper scale, publishing a good article titled \u201cDespite Assange\u2019s ill-health, Swedish court rejects delay to hearing<\/strong><\/span><\/a>\u201d a few hours ago.<\/span><\/p>\n

This news has been so under-discussed and under-appreciated as of this writing that I didn\u2019t find out about it until hours after the story broke, and I\u2019m very plugged in to both alternative media commentary and WikiLeaks-related news. A report that Julian Assange was so sick he could barely speak all the way back on Friday and we still have no news about how he\u2019s doing now should be hugely significant for everyone who cares about Assange, press freedom, government transparency or peace activism.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Another part of this story which has gone completely uncovered in all English-language media as of this writing is the news that\u00a0Assange has actually been transferred to the hospital wing of Belmarsh prison<\/strong>. This\u00a0was reported<\/strong><\/span><\/a>\u00a0by the Swedish outlet\u00a0Upsala Nya Tidning<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/a>, a newspaper published in the same district court Assange is scheduled to call in to for his hearing. The report was also based on a statement to the press by Per Samuelson.<\/span><\/p>\n

The article reports the following, per machine translation:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWikileaks founder Julian Assange\u2019s Swedish lawyer wants the arrest hearing on Monday in Uppsala to be postponed. According to the lawyer, who has now visited his client in British prison, Assange is admitted to the medical department and was unable to make a call.<\/span><\/p>\n

…<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLast Friday, Assange\u2019s Swedish defender, lawyer Per E Samuelson, visited his client in prison. In a letter to Uppsala District Court, the lawyer says that they met for just under two hours. According to the lawyer, Assange\u2019s state of health at the meeting was such that \u2018a normal conversation with him was not possible\u2019. Julian Assange is said to have been taken to the prison\u2019s ward, but there is no more detailed information about his state of health.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

This story\u00a0was picked up<\/strong><\/span><\/a>\u00a0from\u00a0Upsala Nya Tidning\u00a0<\/em>by Danish outlet\u00a0Politiken<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/a>, which per machine translation titled its story \u201cWeakened Assange hospitalized in London prison: \u2018Impossible to have a normal conversation with him\u2019\u201d. These two news outlets are to my understanding as reputable as any other mainstream western outlet, yet they remain the only publications I\u2019ve been able to find which are reporting that Assange has been hospitalized.\u00a0This is absolutely bizarre.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve emailed Per Samuelson with a request to confirm the news that Assange has been hospitalized. I\u2019ll update this article if I hear back.<\/span><\/p>\n

For Assange\u2019s supporters, one of the many frustrating things about his imprisonment has been the way he\u2019s been cut off from the usual means which used to be used to inform the public about his well being.<\/strong>\u00a0It used to be that news reports could be easily confirmed or refuted by people who had consistent access to Assange in some way by sources like the WikiLeaks Twitter account, but the people who operate that account don\u2019t have ready access to him anymore. Now we\u2019re seeing all sorts of rumors circulating about how Assange is faring in prison, and it gets difficult to sort out fact from fiction. It appears that it would be difficult to find a more reliable source on the state of his health than his own lawyer, however.<\/span><\/p>\n

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He needed urgent assistance after his expulsion from the Embassy. Instead, he was not allowed to receive adequate medical treatment. In the case of Emin Huseynov (1 y @ Swiss Embassy) it took at least a month of treatment to go back to normal. Imagine after 7 years! Brutal. https:\/\/t.co\/9fxV3Dz4Iw<\/a><\/p>\n

— Renata Avila (@avilarenata) May 28, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n