Wikileaks founder Julian Assange given permission to marry his partner in prison

The incarcerated founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, has been granted permission to marry his partner, Stella Moris, at Belmarsh prison in the UK. 

The couple received permission to marry inside the high-security prison where Mr. Assange has been lodged since 2019 after the US took legal action to extradite him.

“Mr. Assange’s application was received, considered, and processed in the usual way by the prison governor, as for any other prisoner,” a Prison Service spokesperson was quoted as saying by the Associated Press on Thursday.

Ms. Moris told the PA news agency: “I am relieved that reason prevailed and I hope there will be no further interference with our marriage.”

Assange, 50, met his future wife in 2011, while he was living in the Ecuadorean embassy in the capital.

Ms. Moris is a South Africa-born lawyer and was on his legal team. She has been in a relationship with him since 2015 and has been fighting for him to be released on bail.

The couple got engaged in 2017 and have two children, Max, two, and four-year-old Gabriel, both of whom are British citizens.

Mr. Assange has continued to fight a long-drawn-out legal battle to avoid extradition to the US, where he could be questioned over the activities of WikiLeaks.

He is facing 17 charges of espionage over his role in obtaining and disclosing national defence information following WikiLeaks’s publication of thousands of documents relating to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.

The leaked documents included footage from April 2010 that showed US soldiers shooting and killing civilians from a helicopter in Iraq.

 If found guilty he could face up to 175 years in prison. 

Three killed as gunmen attack Cross River communities

 

About three people have reportedly been killed following an attack by gunmen in Utanga and other communities close to the famous Obudu Cattle Ranch Resort in Obalinku LGA of Cross River State.  

Youth leader, Prince Agom Osim said that the gunmen who wore army uniforms and numbering about 20, were heavily armed with sophisticated weapons. 

sim said the incident occurred around 10am on Thursday November 11 and lack of telecommunications signals in those communities hampered efforts to get help to them.  

He said; 

 “They attacked and robbed five communities close to Utanga. We were not aware that there was such an incident going on as there is no mobile phone network in the area.   

“After that, they drove through the road to Utanga, robbing from shops to shops, residential houses and attacking unsuspecting people.  

“At first, shop owners thought they were military men, not until they started shooting indiscriminately.  

“They entered shops, beat up those who attempted to resist them. A young man from Utanga was shot dead in the process. We hear that two others were similarly killed in another community.”  

Another eyewitness identified simply as Agom, told Daily Trust that a fuel station worker who tried to argue with the gang was stabbed  and sustained a deep cut on his head.  

Another youth leader in Utanga, Adie Simon said he saw the gunmen seizing motorcycles from some villagers.