Vatican City: Stella Assange, the wife of imprisoned WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, met with Pope Francis on Friday. She praised the gesture as proof of the pope's "ongoing show of support for our family's plight" and concern for her husband's suffering.
Stella Assange recalled that Francis had written a letter to her husband in March 2021, during a particularly trying time, in an interview with The Associated Press following the audience.
"He has provided great solace and comfort, and we are extremely appreciative of his reaching out to our relatives in this way," she told AP. He is concerned and aware of Julian's suffering.
Also Read: Western Kenyan road accident results in at least 51 fatalities and 32 injuries
Assange has been battling extradition to the US, where he could receive a 175-year sentence on espionage charges for disclosing secret military and diplomatic documents through WikiLeaks, for four years in Britain's Belmarsh Prison.
Prior to that, Assange sought refuge for seven years in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London in an effort to evade extradition to Sweden due to allegations of sexual assault.
Because so much time had passed, Sweden ended its sex crimes investigations in November 2019; however, British judges have kept Assange behind bars while they await the resolution of the protracted extradition dispute.
Other than to confirm that the private audience took place, the Vatican withheld all other information. The Argentine Jesuit pope has long demonstrated his support for prisoners by frequently visiting them while travelling abroad and giving prison ministry top priority while serving as the archbishop of Buenos Aires.
Also Read: France accuses the former assistant of the bank chief of corruption
Francis and Stella Assange spoke in Spanish, according to Stella Assange, a lawyer who wed her husband in prison in 2022. She also claimed to have shown him two pictures from their wedding. The speaker described the crowd as "overwhelming" and mentioned that she had brought along her mother, brother, and the couple's two young sons, Gabriel and Max, who were born while Julian Assange was working at the embassy.
The visit coincided with Stella Assange's ongoing efforts to mobilise political backing for her husband's cause, which last month included a trip to his native Australia. There was a growing consensus, according to her, that his continued detention was cruel.
"I have a lot of faith that the situation will change, and there are many people around the world, from all parts of the world here and elsewhere, who are trying to get justice and see freedom for my husband," she said.
Also Read: US official: CIA chief visited Ukraine covertly
She cited Australia's intervention, human rights organisations, and press freedom organisations in claiming that there was growing general agreement that "what is being done to my husband is inhumane, that he is suffering, and that he's been in prison for four years for publishing true information revealing the killing of innocents and criminality and injustice."
Assange is viewed by his supporters as a journalist who broke US military secrets in Afghanistan and Iraq. According to American prosecutors, he allegedly assisted Chelsea Manning, a former US Army intelligence analyst, in stealing secret diplomatic cables and military documents that WikiLeaks later released, endangering lives.