Pamela Anderson speaks to the media outside Belmarsh Prison after visiting WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Photo / AP.
Pamela Anderson speaks to the media outside Belmarsh Prison after visiting WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Photo / AP.
Pamela Anderson has become Julian Assange's first prison visitor besides his lawyer after the actress travelled to the high-security London jail where he is being held.
The former Baywatch star was wrapped in a large blanket covered in writing about "free speech" and paired with black stilettos, as she addressedthe media outside Belmarsh Prison afterwards.
"He does not deserve to be in a supermax prison," she told reporters after she and WikiLeaks editor Kristinn Hrafnsson met with Assange. "He has never committed a violent act. He is an innocent person."
She said he was "really cut off from everybody" with no access to information and had not been able to speak to his children.
"He's a good man, he's an incredible person," said the 51-year-old. "I love him. I can't imagine what he has been going through.
"It was great to see him, but this is just misrule of law in operation. It is absolute shock that he has not been able to get out of his cell."
Pamela Anderson leaves Belmarsh Prison in London after visiting WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Photo / AP.
In a post on Twitter, she described him as the world's "most innocent man" who is treated as "the world's most dangerous man". Her blanket included the phrases, "gagged and kept in confinement ... shackled", "he survived 2.5 years..." and "no man should..."
The American actress spent time with Assange on several occasions when he lived at the Ecuadorean embassy in London.
The Australian WikiLeaks founder was dragged out of the embassy last month and was last week sentenced to 50 weeks in prison for a bail violation.
He is fighting extradition to the United States, where he is wanted for questioning over the activities of WikiLeaks.
Mr Hrafnsson said Assange was in "general" solitary confinement because he mostly spends 23 hours a day in his cell at the south-east London prison, adding that the situation was "unacceptable".
Speaking after a court hearing last week, he said: "We are worried about Julian Assange. We are hearing that the situation in Belmarsh Prison is appalling because of austerity and cutbacks.
"For the last weeks since he was arrested, he has spent 23 out of 24 hours a day in his cell most of the time.
"That is what we call in general terms solitary confinement. That's unacceptable. That applies to most of the prisoners in that appalling facility. It is unacceptable that a publisher is spending time in that prison."
The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said in a statement on Friday it was "deeply concerned" about the "disproportionate" sentence imposed on Assange.
"The Working Group is of the view that violating bail is a minor violation that, in the United Kingdom, carries a maximum sentence of 12 months in prison.
"It is worth recalling that the detention and the subsequent bail of Mr Assange in the UK were connected to preliminary investigations initiated in 2010 by a prosecutor in Sweden.
"It is equally worth noting that that prosecutor did not press any charges against Mr Assange and that in 2017, after interviewing him in the Ecuadorean embassy in London, she discontinued investigations and brought an end to the case.
"The Working Group is further concerned that Mr Assange has been detained since 11 April 2019 in Belmarsh prison, a high-security prison, as if he were convicted for a serious criminal offence.
"This treatment appears to contravene the principles of necessity and proportionality envisaged by the human rights standards."
The Working Group has previously stated that Assange was arbitrarily detained in the Ecuadorean embassy and should have had his liberty restored.
