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Julian Assange challenges King Charles to visit Belmarsh Prison
In a candid letter, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange invites King Charles to visit Belmarsh Prison.
Left: Photo of King Charles take on 3 May 2023. AFP/Pool/Yui Mok Right: Photo of Julian Assange taken on 7 September 2018. AFP/Getty Images/Drew Angerer
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange penned a letter to King Charles III ahead of the monarch’s coronation on Saturday.
Assange invited King Charles to visit the UK prison where he has been held captive for over four years “on behalf of an embarrassed foreign sovereign.”
Assange’s letter to King Charles
This is the first document Assange has written and published during his time at Belmarsh prison in London, and it details the harrowing experiences of his imprisonment.
“One can truly know the measure of a society by how it treats its prisoners, and your kingdom has surely excelled in that regard”, Assange writes.
Reality of Belmarsh Prison
Assange says 687 British citizens are held in Belmarsh, marking the UK as the nation with the largest prison population in Western Europe.
He sarcastically commends the UK government’s commitment to the largest expansion of prison places in over a century and describes the “culinary delights” of subsisting on a budget of two pounds per day.
He continues, “As a political prisoner, held at your majesty’s pleasure on behalf of an embarrassed foreign sovereign, I am honoured to reside within the walls of this world-class institution.”
Tragic loss within prison walls
The WikiLeaks founder mentions the tragic death of his friend Manoel Santos, a gay man facing deportation to Brazil who took his own life just eight yards from Assange’s cell.
He also invited King Charles to visit the most isolated areas within Belmarsh, including “Healthcare, or ‘Hellcare'”, and the prison’s “End of Life Suite.”
“Listen closely, and you may hear the prisoners’ cries of ‘Brother, I’m going to die in here,’ a testament to the quality of both life and death within your prison”, he adds.
Assange concludes by urging King Charles to remember the words of the King James Bible, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy,” and to let mercy be the guiding light of his kingdom both within and beyond the walls of Belmarsh.
