Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, who is fighting a US bid to extradite him from Britain, could die in prison unless he gets urgent care.
More than 60 doctors wrote an open letter published Monday saying they feared Julian Assange's health was so bad that he could die inside a top-security British jail.
The US is trying to extradite him from Britain on charges filed under the Espionage Act that could see him given a sentence of up to 175 years in a US prison. Assange publishing classified military and diplomatic files in 2010 about US bombing campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq proved highly embarrassing to the US government.
Doctors addressed the letter to Home Secretary Priti Patel, Britain's interior minister. The doctors call for Assange to be moved from Belmarsh prison in southeast London to a university teaching hospital.
When Assange made a public appearance for the first time in six months, he appeared confused and unable to recall his name and date of birth. at the end of the hearing told District Judge Vanessa Baraitser that he had not understood what had happened in court.
He also complained about the conditions in which he was being kept in Belmarsh. This was his first public appearance since was dragged out of the Embassy of Ecuador in April. He also appeared confused whenever he was asked to talk at Westminster Magistrates' Court in London.
Sweden dropped rape allegations against Assange last week. Nils Melzer, an independent UN rights expert said Assange's "continued exposure to arbitrariness and abuse may soon end up costing his life".
The doctors, in a 16-page letter, wrote, “We write this open letter, like medical doctors, to express our serious concerns about the physical and mental health of Julian Assange."
"Mr Assange requires an urgent expert medical assessment of both his physical and psychological state of health," the letter further read wrote.
"Any medical treatment indicated should be administered in a properly equipped and expertly staffed university teaching hospital (tertiary care).
"Were such urgent assessment and treatment not to take place, we have real concerns, on the evidence currently available, that Mr Assange could die in prison. The medical situation is thereby urgent. There is no time to lose." The doctors who wrote the letter are from the United States, Australia, Britain, Sweden, Italy, Germany, Sri Lanka, Poland.
