(London, U.K.) On what was London’s coldest night of the year, hundreds of activists, journalists and simply those who oppose the U.S. prosecution of Julian Assange on Thursday packed into central London’s Conway Hall — appropriately home to what’s believed to be the oldest surviving free-thought organisation across the world.
I was among those to brave the frigid night into the former chapel, built in 1824. I was among those that shared the conviction that what’s happening to Julian Assange is plainly wrong.
As a journalist in attendance, my notebook prior to entry had two questions for Stella Assange — by that evening, Assange’s wife for a little under a year.
“Can you tell us a little about how Julian is doing? What’s his state of mind going into the next set of court proceedings?”
Imprisoned at H.M.P. Belmarsh since his arrest in April 2019, the walls of that maximum-security prison have been the closest thing to resemble a home in what is now excess of 1,700 days of incarceration.
Once speeches were given by Alexei Sayle, Len McCluskey and British Members of Parliament Jeremy Corbyn, Richard Burgon and David Davis, Stella was the last to grace the stage — the only one opting not to stand behind the podium, joking there’s a fear that the audience wouldn’t see her.
“I usually like to start with how Julian is doing,” her address began. Fantastic. Early night for me.
Once she thanked the speakers, my enthusiasm was burst as I was again reminded of the severity of the situation.
“The Christmas that we just had was actually the worst… the worst so far, because…”
A deep exhale, sounding more like a sigh, forced its way out of Stella.
“Always during Christmas there are less visits. And he also got quite sick — although he’s recovered. And then John Pilger died.
“This was just such a terrible end to the year because, as you all know I’m sure, John Pilger wasn’t just someone that Julian admired professionally. They developed a close friendship over the years.
“You know, when I think of the two of them together, it’s sitting at the table, sharing anecdotes and laughing.”
Pilger, also an Australian, was a mammoth and pioneering journalist in his own right. His death came just before the New Year, just as the death of another close friend of Assange’s — Dame Vivienne Westwood — came the previous year. The losses were punctuated by the departure another giant and dear friend of Assange’s in Daniel Ellsberg, the Pentagon Papers whistleblower whose death came in June 2023.
Stella touched on how it was moments with friends such as these that Assange will not get back due to his imprisonment and the U.S. attempts to extradite him. She noted how Assange was 39 years old when U.S. efforts to prosecute him began. He was 40 the last time he saw freedom before seeking refuge from the then-pending U.S. charges at the Ecuadorean embassy in London. He is now 52.
Stella also noted how Gabriel, the pair’s eldest son, was two years old when his father was first imprisoned at H.M.P. Belmarsh. He has now grown to seven. It’s moments such as these that he and his younger brother Max will never retrieve.
British courts will have the opportunity to rectify this miscarriage of justice on the 20th and 21st of February when the High Court hears arguments from Assange’s barristers on why the current trajectory of this case needs to be prevented.
Speaking earlier in the night, Conservative MP David Davis — an unlikely, but welcome defender of Assange — argued that had he been a British citizen, charged with equivalent crimes in this country, a British jury would never convict him.
Davis spelled out three prominent Official Secrets Act cases of recent British history, beginning with Clive Ponting — the Ministry of Defence civil servant who in 1984 leaked classified documents about the Royal Navy’s sinking of an Argentine ship during the Falklands War two years prior.
The Conservative MP for Haltemprice and Howden recalled how the judge in the case instructed the jury to find Ponting guilty. Nonetheless, they returned a not guilty verdict, understanding that the disclosures were overwhelmingly in the public interest and in the public’s right to know what’s being done in their names.
Davis gave a similar re-telling of Official Secrets Act cases against Katharine Gun and Derek Pasquill and how they ended the same way. If a British jury were to try Assange for the documents he published, Davis said, there’s “no sense of doubt at all” that they would reject it.
The case continues.
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Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated Assange’s age as 53, but this has since been amended.