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Lack of sun has given Wikileaks founder Julian Assange a heart defect!
Sunday, August 17, 2014 18:55
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Dailybhaskar.com<!–Google–> | Aug 17, 2014, 15:08PM IST
London: When Julian Assange was in solitary confinement in HMP Wandsworth, he was permitted one hour daily of fresh air and proper exercise in the outside world. Since he was granted asylum within the Embassy of Ecuador two years ago yesterday, the WikiLeaks chief has known no such luxury.
One hour is the minimum demanded by the United Nations – after visiting Assange last Monday.
As per Daily Mail, his usually pale skin is now almost translucent and on his face it is so puffy it looks as if it is lifting off his naturally sharp cheekbones. He has a chronic cough which the installation of a humidifier to moisten the dry, air-conditioned atmosphere has done little to ease. His eyes have navy pools of shadow beneath them, suggesting that he’s shifted from nocturnal to sleep-deprived.He has grown a snowy beard.
Assange is, according to a WikiLeaks source, suffering from the potentially life-threatening heart condition arrhythmia and has a chronic lung complaint and dangerously high blood pressure. A severe shortage of Vitamin D, the sunshine vitamin, is impacting on his general health – in the long term, it can trigger asthma and diabetes, weaken bones and increase the risk of dementia.
The Ecuadorians have asked permission to take him to hospital – using a diplomatic car as an ambulance if the need arises – but it’s a request the Foreign Office has declined to answer. In the meantime, he works out with a former SAS veteran who acts as his personal trainer and plays football alone in the embassy corridor in an effort to keep flexible.
Assange is angry about the cost of his exile to his health, to his family and to Britain – £7 million and counting. He doesn’t like the words ‘self-imposed’, believing he had no option in his battle to avoid extradition to the US where he faced up to 35 years in prison for his controversial whistleblowing activities.
‘Look,’ he says, ‘the broader geopolitics is that the world is going crazy. Maybe it’s time to think that WikiLeaks is not the main problem here for the West, maybe me and my publishing house are a lesser threat than say the Islamic State in Iraq or, closer to home, paedophiles in Westminster.
‘Why are they burning £240,000 a month on me which could be better spent on hospital beds, meals for the needy or teachers’ salaries? The Metropolitan Police Service has now spent in excess of £7 million on guarding the embassy, which is a ridiculous waste of taxpayers’ money.’
The United States wants to prosecute him over WikiLeaks’ 2010 publication of an extraordinary cache of classified documents concerning the Pentagon’s activities in Iraq and Afghanistan and US diplomacy elsewhere in the world. Assange is also the subject of a European Arrest Warrant relating to allegations of a sexual misconduct in Sweden four years ago. No charges have been brought in connection with the allegations – which he has steadfastly denied – but prosecutors wish to question him in Stockholm.
What Assange fears is that he could be extradited to America by either the UK or Sweden and that he risks spending most of the rest of his life in jail. He remains optimistic a diplomatic solution will be achieved by the UK and Ecuador which will enable him to seek safe passage to a friendly country.
Assange describes life in the embassy as ‘sometimes lonely and sometimes peaceful’. But it’s a life that still attracts a lot of attention. He regularly receives bomb and death threats by post and email but is also targeted by female fans proposing marriage and romance.
His small bedroom, to the rear of the embassy, is his sanctuary. He has a private shower room, use of the tiny galley kitchen which serves the embassy staff and office space which shifts from room to room for security reasons.
Image Courtesy: Reuters
File Image of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange
