WikiLeaks
co-founder Julian Assange has offered to serve time at a US prison if
President Barack Obama would pardon Chelsea Manning, the
whistleblower who handed Wikileaks US military and diplomatic
documents in 2010. Manning is currently serving a 35-year sentence at
the US Disciplinary Barracks in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
Assange, an
Australian national, has been trapped inside the embassy of Ecuador
since August 2012, when he requested asylum to avoid being arrested
and extradited to Sweden, claiming he would then face unfair trial in
the US.
“The
staff are being extremely helpful in allowing him to stay but it is
an embassy, it is not a even a prison, it doesn’t have the services
available in any standard prison,” Assange’s lawyer Melinda
Taylor told RT. “His rights have been violated. His right to
protection against arbitrary detention, his presumption of innocence,
his right to a fair trial, his protection against cruel and inhumane
treatment - all of these rights have been violated,” Taylor
added.
Manning is
facing indefinite solitary confinement after attempted suicide in
August. She says she is bullied by prison and military officials, and
requires treatment for gender dysphoria. Last week, the whistleblower
resorted to a hunger strike to highlight her plight. “I have
asked for help time and time again for six years and through five
separate confinement locations,” Manning said in a statement
issued through her attorneys. “My request has only been ignored,
delayed, mocked, given trinkets and lip service by the prison, the
military, and this administration.” “Until I am shown
dignity and respect as a human again, I shall endure this pain before
me,” Manning concluded.
On Tuesday,
the Department of Defense said that Manning would qualify for gender
reassignment surgery under a new directive going into effect October
1.
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