July Washington Memo
With his plea deal, Assange dodged a "slow motion assassination" - and actual CIA assassination plots.
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On October 28, 2021, I was virtually attending a hearing in Julian Assange’s protracted struggle against extradition to the US. During the hearing, Assange was visible on his own remote link from Belmarsh Prison.
Assange’s physical appearance shocked me and nearly everyone else attending in person or remotely. After the two day hearing concluded, Defending Rights & Rights Dissent hosted a virtual roundtable with journalists who covered it. I joined my fellow court correspondents Kevin Gosztola and Stefania Maurizi. Ryan Grim, the DC Bureau Chief of The Intercept moderated. The state of Julian Assange’s health was on all of our lips.
Maurizi had known Assange for years. She met with him in Berlin as a free man, visited him when he was under house arrest, and in the Ecuadorian embassy. In her last meeting with him in the embassy, she was horrified. Concerned, she sent an email to her editor that Assange was dying. As she told this story during the panel, Stefania bluntly let us know that was nothing compared to how Assange looked that day during court.
Some months later we would learn what happened. Assange had suffered a mini-stroke. It was one of the many stories we heard about Assange’s deteriorating health, but it was the one I witnessed (even if it was over a remote connection). It was haunting and I worried for the journalist’s health. Not only was I concerned about what would happen to the WikiLeaks founder in the US, I wasn’t sure he would survive long enough to even be extradited.