MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Assange isolated inside prison after testing positive for COVID-19

Assange's health has deteriorated considerably since he has been housed at Belmarsh prison

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, housed at Belmarsh prison in the UK awaiting extradition to the United States, has been reported to have tested positive for COVID-19 while his wife harbors fears over his well-being.

Assange is charged in the US for publishing secret military documents and confidential diplomatic cables and is t be tried for espionage, with a possible sentence of up to 175 years in jail.

“Julian tested positive on Saturday, the same day that thousands of people were demonstrating in support of him,” said Stella Assange. She also explained that the 51-year-old Australian national had been placed in solitary confinement and expressed her concern over the health of the father of her children.

Assange “wasn't feeling well last week, but he started feeling really bad on Friday. He started coughing and had a fever. They gave him paracetamol. and then he tested positive for covid, this was on Saturday,” Mrs. Assange explained, noting that her husband is now “locked in his cell 24 hours a day” pending extradition for the publication of hundreds of thousands of pages of secret military documents and confidential diplomatic cables on the activities in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The British government has granted Assange's but an appeal is yet to be resolved by British judiciary authorities. Assange was arrested in 2019, after taking refuge for seven years in the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

“The next few days will be crucial for his general health,” Mrs. Assange also pointed out. Assange's request in early 2020 to be released on bail due to a chronic lung condition was declined. Since his confinement in Belmarsh, Assange has lost a significant amount of weight and the ability to speak coherently, leading prison authorities to move him to the hospital wing. In December, he suffered a stroke, leaving him with a drooping eyelid, memory problems, and apparent neurological damage, according to his wife, who said the incident was triggered by the stress of ongoing extradition proceedings.