Hundreds of letters are being sent to the Home Office in support of Julian Assange. Keep writing them, keep posting them and share their replies so all of us get the latest government position on the matter and further letters can be tailored accordingly. Thank you for your persistence, the letters we write today are the cornerstones of the letters we write tomorrow. This is a long term solidarity action, every letter is an expression of our political will, exercising our democratic rights in this struggle for justice and in defence of WikiLeaks publishing and Press Freedom!

Here Michael Prior the Home Office Communications Office below describes the legal process through the courts assuring that safeguards are in place for due process:

Dear ******* 5TH MAY 20202

Thank you for your email of 20 April to the Home Secretary about Julian Assange.  As I hope you will appreciate, the Home Secretary receives a large amount of correspondence and is unable to reply to each piece individually.  Your email has therefore been forwarded to the Direct Communications Unit and I have been asked to reply.

Julian Assange was arrested in relation to a provisional extradition request from the United States of America.  The full extradition request was subsequently received and certified.

The extradition request for Mr Assange is governed by Part 2 of the Extradition Act 2003.  The Act provides a person, whose extradition is sought by another jurisdiction, with full and effective safeguards including the right to a fair trial.

The next stage in the process will be an extradition hearing at which the District Judge will determine whether any of the statutory bars to extradition apply.  The hearing began on 24^th February 2020 for one week and was due to resume in May.  Due to the situation surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic, the Court has adjourned the May hearing and will decide on a revised hearing date as soon as possible.

Then, if the Judge finds that extradition is not barred, the case will be sent to the Home Secretary to decide whether to order extradition – there are only a limited number of issues she may consider.  Leave to appeal to the High Court can be sought against both the decision of the District Judge and the decision of the Home Secretary.

With regard to Mr Assange’s state of health, the Government is duty bound to protect the personal information of all those who live, work in and visit any of the UK’s prisons.  It would therefore be inappropriate to comment on the health of individual prisoners.

However, I can advise that the UK Government takes very seriously its duty of care to ensure all prisoners are able to serve or await their sentences in a safe and decent environment.  Prisoners are not detained in solitary confinement, nor in contravention of international law.  Prisoners are entitled to possession of their legal documents, and letters between prisoners and their legal advisers are treated as privileged and handled in confidence.  Visits from legal advisers, as well as social visits, are facilitated by the prison.

Mr Assange’s case is before the courts and it would not be right to comment further.  I hope, however, that any concerns that you have about the case may be allayed by the fact that requests for extradition are subject to statutory safeguards and judicial oversight.

Yours sincerely

Michael Prior

Email: Public.Enquiries@homeoffice.gov.uk