Assange Files Lawsuit Against Raab, Prison For Preventing Marriage With Fiancee - Reports

LONDON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 07th November, 2021) WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and his fiancee Stella Moris filed a lawsuit against UK Justice Secretary Dominic Raab and the head of Belmarsh prison, where the whistleblower is currently held, for preventing their marriage, British media reported.

The couple claims that the obstacles placed by the UK authorities in this matter are part of a political war against Assange, according to the Daily Mail.

"There is no reason for political interference in what is a basic human right. The CIA revelations show the lengths some agencies are willing to go to in their persecution of Julian," Moris was quoted as saying by the daily.

Assange and Moris have been engaged for five years and have two children together. They have asked for assistance in arranging the marriage in May, when the whistleblower was already in jail awaiting extradition appeal trial, the newspaper said. However, the process stalled and Assange applied for official permission directly with the Belmarsh chief on October 7, to no effect. The couple's lawyers also reportedly failed to get a response from the prison authorities.

The lawsuit accuses Raab and Belmarsh Governor Jenny Louis of abusing their power over Assange, behaving irrationally and unfairly, and denying the couple and their children their human rights, the Daily Mail said.

The accused have until November 12 to respond.

Assange was arrested in London on April 11, 2019, and sentenced to 50 weeks in prison for jumping bail in 2012. He took refuge inside the Ecuadorean embassy in the UK capital to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he was facing sexual assault charges that were later dropped by a Swedish court.

Assange is wanted by the United States on espionage charges after WikiLeaks published thousands of classified documents that shed light on war crimes committed by American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. If put on trial and convicted in the US, the whistleblower faces up to 175 years in prison.

In September, it was revealed that senior US officials and the CIA were allegedly discussing the possibility of kidnapping and killing Assange in 2017 while he was hiding in the Ecuadorian embassy in London.