Three weeks before the UK authorities decide on the question
of his extradition to the United States, supporters of whistleblower Julian
Assange have appealed to various authorities terming his imprisonment as not “legal” and demanding his release. 

Assange has been in the top-security Belmarsh prison of London
since April 2019, when he was arrested from the Ecuadorean Embassy after taking
refuge there for seven years.

Stella Morris, his partner, recently spoke to a channel and
appealed for his release, saying that the whistleblower has been
put under “atrocious” conditions in the prison where he has dangerous criminals
as fellow inmates.

“He is in atrocious circumstances,” Morris told Sky News
Australia last week.

“The prison is a dangerous place, suicide and murders are
commonplace, he is surrounded by very dangerous criminals, one in five are (sic)
convicted of murder,” she said, as quoted by Euronews website.

Also read: Tulsi Gabbard urges Donald Trump to pardon Julian Assange, Edward Snowden

The British legal authorities have scheduled a hearing on January 4 to announce on his
extradition to the US, where Assange is wanted for 17 espionage charges for
making public war crimes and other malpractices by the US government on his website Wikileaks a
decade back.

Assange, an Australian citizen, found support also from a
lawmaker from his country, who appealed to Donald Trump, the outgoing President, to grant him pardon.

Also read: Julian Assange’s story of molestation charges, extradition, ghosts and now depression

Speaking in Parliament, Australian MP George Christensen
urged Trump to “poke the deep state in the eye” by granting Assange pardon, who,
he said, was being punished for antagonizing Hillary Clinton for “exposing”
her.

“I mean Hillary Clinton hates his guts, obviously, for
exposing who the real Hillary was, and you’ve had a war on Assange by the
Democrats and the deep state,” Christensen said, as quoted by Wion News website.

Pardoning Assange would be “one way that Donald Trump can
stand up for free speech”, the lawmaker said.

In a statement issued last week, United Nations Special
Rapporteur on Torture Nils Melzer called for Assange’s release saying that
his imprisonment by the British authorities lacked any legal basis.

“Mr. Assange’s rights have been severely violated for more
than a decade,” Melzer was quoted by World Socialist website, WSWS.org.

“He must now be allowed to live a normal family, social and
professional life, to recover his health and to adequately prepare his defence
against the US extradition request pending against him.”  

“Mr. Assange is not a criminal convict and poses no threat
to anyone, so his prolonged solitary confinement in a high security prison is
neither necessary nor proportionate and clearly lacks any legal basis.”

“The progressively severe suffering inflicted on Mr Assange
as a result of his prolonged solitary confinement amounts not only to arbitrary
detention, but also to torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment
or punishment,” he added.

Earlier, US Congresswoman from Hawaii, Tulsi Gabbard too had
urged Trump to grant pardon to the dissident online campaigner, who leaked
millions of documents over years involving several diplomats and heads of
state.

Assange was earlier implicated by the Swedish government for
raping two Swedish women– a case, which his supporters have called as phoney
and built to corral Assange, to ultimately extradite him to the US. The case has since been
dismissed by the Swedish authorities.

He was arrested by the UK authorities over charges of “breaching
bail” and was sentenced to 50 weeks.