Wikileaks founder Assange apparently fathered two children with a lawyer in exile
Wikileaks unveiling platform founder Julian Assange reportedly fathered two children while in exile at Ecuador’s embassy in London. The mother of the two boys is lawyer Stella Moris. Given the corona pandemic, she is worried about Assange’s life in prison, the PA news agency quoted the lawyer from an application to the responsible court. According to the lawyer, Assange is in isolation 23 hours a day and no longer receives a visit.
The court records indicate that Moris met Assange in 2011 as a lawyer and started a relationship with him in 2015 when he was still at the embassy. “Julian and I developed a strong intellectual and emotional relationship over time,” the lawyer is quoted as saying. According to the Guardian, the eldest son is now three years old, the second one year. Neither a spokeswoman for Assanges in the UK nor his father John Shipton wanted to confirm or deny the reports on Sunday at the request of the German press agency.
The Australian-born has been in Belmarsh maximum security prison for about a year. A US extradition process is scheduled to continue on May 18. Most recently, on March 25, a court rejected Assange’s application to be released on bail for the pandemic.
According to friends, the 48-year-old has been suffering from health problems for months. The coronavirus is also spreading in British prisons. In Belmarsh, an inmate is said to have died of lung disease Covid-19.
“I have to speak now, because I see that his life is on the brink,” said the lawyer of the “Mail on Sunday”. The 37-year-old is said to have been born in South Africa. The couple have been engaged since 2017. The woman said she wanted to marry Assange. Assange is said to have followed the birth of the sons by video.
The US judiciary accuses Assange of helping whistleblower Chelsea Manning release secret material from US military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. According to Washington, the security of US informants in particular was put at risk. Assange faces up to 175 years in prison if convicted on all 18 charges.
He denies the allegations. According to his lawyers, the charges are constructed to set an example. They see the trial as an attack on freedom of expression and demand Assange’s release. The Wikileaks revelations had among other things led to the detection of war crimes by US soldiers.
Assange had fled to the Ecuadorian embassy in London in 2012, fearing extradition to the United States. At the time, he had a European arrest warrant for rape allegations in Sweden. The investigation was later stopped.
The British police arrested Assange in April 2019 for violating bail conditions by fleeing to the embassy. He was sentenced to less than a year in prison. (sda / dpa)
