Julian Assange, founder of Wikeleaks, suffered a stroke during a British Supreme Court hearing on his extradition to the United States on October 27, where he was present via video link from Belmarsh prison. His fiancée Stella Maurice told the Daily Mail about this.
According to her, during the trial, 50-year-old Assange had a transient ischemic attack, his right eyelid did not close, and his memory was fuzzy. The doctor found that he had a delay in the reaction of the pupil when exposed to light, which may indicate damage to the nerves, Maurice said.
The judge released him from participation in the hearing, while Assange could not leave the prison video room. He is now on medication for a stroke. Since then, the WikiLeaks founder has “more or less recovered,” Maurice said. However, his health could deteriorate, she suggested.
The US authorities accuse Julian Assange of espionage and hacking of computers because of the publication on the WikiLeaks website of American official documents about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and diplomatic cables of 2010-2011.
According to the investigation, Assange was an accomplice of the defense analyst Chelsea Manning, who violated the espionage law, hacked computers and published materials that could harm the informers of the US intelligence services. If extradited, he faces up to 175 years in prison.
In early January, a British court refused to extradite Assange to the United States due to the fact that he suffers from depression and may commit suicide in a maximum security prison. On December 10, the appellate court ruled out this risk, as US lawyers said they would not contain Assange in harsh conditions, which allowed extradition.
.