New Events

International

no events posted in last week

Blog Feeds

Anti-Empire

Anti-Empire

offsite link US Marines Commandant Wants to Dump All ... Wed Mar 03, 2021 20:57 | Paul McLeary

offsite link Cuomo Wins Al-Qaeda’s ‘Jihadi of the... Wed Mar 03, 2021 15:15 | Rafi Metz

offsite link Facing MBS Questions Washington Suddenly... Wed Mar 03, 2021 14:38 | Dave DeCamp

offsite link Previously Unreleased Footage of Iranian... Wed Mar 03, 2021 13:27 | Colonel Cassad

offsite link Orban Gets a Sinopharm Jab, Slovakia Imp... Wed Mar 03, 2021 12:34 | bne IntelliNews

Anti-Empire >>

The Saker
A bird's eye view of the vineyard

offsite link The Bamiyan Buddhas: an Afghan tale Wed Mar 03, 2021 17:26 | amarynth
by Pepe Escobar with permission and first posted at Asia Times In the beginning, they were the Bamiyan Buddhas: the Western Buddha statue, 55 meters high, and the Eastern, 38

offsite link Sitrep: Eradicating absolute poverty in China Wed Mar 03, 2021 16:07 | amarynth
By Godfree Roberts ? selected from his extensive weekly newsletter : Here Comes China plus editorial notes. You can get it here:  https://www.herecomeschina.... The Biggest News Xi declares ‘complete victory’

offsite link Leaked: Smith College memo demands workers admit White privilege Wed Mar 03, 2021 01:04 | amarynth
by Ramin Mazaheri for the Saker Blog As a daily reporter, columnist and author it seems I have developed a reputation for unparalleled bravery in exposing truths which the 1%

offsite link Moveable Feast Cafe 2021/03/02 ? Open Thread Tue Mar 02, 2021 15:30 | Herb Swanson
2021/03/02 15:30:01Welcome to the ‘Moveable Feast Cafe’. The ‘Moveable Feast’ is an open thread where readers can post wide ranging observations, articles, rants, off topic and have animate discussions of

offsite link Bernays and Propaganda ? The Transition to Education and Commerce ? Part 4 Tue Mar 02, 2021 10:16 | amarynth
By Larry Romanoff for the Saker Blog The success of Lippman and Bernays did not go unnoticed in many segments of American society. Universities in particular realised the potential of

The Saker >>

Human Rights in Ireland
A Blog About Human Rights

offsite link Poor Living Conditions for Migrants in Southern Italy Mon Jan 18, 2021 10:14 | Human Rights

offsite link Right to Water Mon Aug 03, 2020 19:13 | Human Rights

offsite link Human Rights Fri Mar 20, 2020 16:33 | Human Rights

offsite link Turkish President Calls On Greece To Comply With Human Rights on Syrian Refugee Issues Wed Mar 04, 2020 17:58 | Human Rights

offsite link US Holds China To Account For Human Rights Violations Sun Oct 13, 2019 19:12 | Human Rights

Human Rights in Ireland >>

Spirit of Contradiction

offsite link The Party and the Ballot Box Sun Jul 14, 2019 22:24 | Gavin Mendel-Gleason

offsite link On The Decline and Fall of The American Empire and Socialism Sat Jan 26, 2019 01:52 | S. Duncan

offsite link What is Dogmatism and Why Does It Matter? Wed Mar 21, 2018 08:10 | Sylvia Smith

offsite link The Case of Comrade Dallas Mon Mar 19, 2018 19:44 | Sylvia Smith

offsite link Review: Do Religions Evolve? Mon Aug 14, 2017 19:54 | Dara McHugh

Spirit of Contradiction >>

Doctors demand “urgent” medical intervention to save Julian Assange’s life

category international | rights, freedoms and repression | other press author Monday November 25, 2019 22:54author by 1 of indyReport this post to the editors

The British state is slowly killing Julian Assange. They want him to die so as to send a message to anyone else who dares make public the crimes of governments like the US and the UK who have bombed countless countries, murdering hundreds of thousands of people in the process and which in fact has gone a long way to contributing to the waves of immigrants risking their lives to get into Europe. The World Socialist WebSite has produced a report on the situation so far.

More than 65 eminent medical doctors from the UK and around the world have issued an open letter calling for urgent action to protect the life of imprisoned WikiLeaks founder and journalist Julian Assange.

The doctors warn there may be serious consequences if Assange is not moved from Belmarsh Prison to a university teaching hospital where he can be assessed and treated by an expert medical team.
Julian Assange - Slowly being murdered by the apparatus of the state courtsey
Julian Assange - Slowly being murdered by the apparatus of the state courtsey

More than 65 eminent medical doctors from the UK and around the world have issued an open letter calling for urgent action to protect the life of imprisoned WikiLeaks founder and journalist Julian Assange.

The doctors warn there may be serious consequences if Assange is not moved from Belmarsh Prison to a university teaching hospital where he can be assessed and treated by an expert medical team.

“Were such urgent assessment and treatment not to take place,” they write, “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.”

Their letter is addressed to UK Home Secretary Priti Patel and has been copied to Labour’s Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott.

The doctors’ extraordinary intervention in the midst of the British general election coincides with a groundswell of popular opposition to the relentless state persecution of Assange. The Australian-born journalist faces extradition to the United States and a 175-year prison term for exposing US war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Dr Stephen Frost, a specialist in diagnostic radiology, began drafting the open letter with colleagues in late October. He was moved to act after reading the harrowing account of Assange’s October 21 court appearance at London’s Westminster Magistrates Court written by former British diplomat and whistleblower Craig Murray.

“I was shocked,” Frost recalled. “As a doctor, I suddenly realised that things were a lot worse than I had previously thought and that I needed to do something.”

Signatories have backed the findings on Assange by UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Nils Melzer. Melzer visited Assange at Belmarsh Prison with two medical experts on May 9. His team found Assange was suffering the effects of prolonged “psychological torture” after nearly a decade of arbitrary detention and state persecution.

On November 1, Melzer warned, “Mr. Assange’s continued exposure to arbitrariness and abuse may soon end up costing his life.”

Frost said Melzer’s intervention had been critical. “He did his job fearlessly and he was disregarded. But he was an expert in his field and we respected his opinion. You can tell when someone is speaking the truth.”

Senior medical doctors in the UK, and from Sweden, the US, Australia, Germany, Italy and Sri Lanka have signed the open letter. They include leading psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, neurologists, surgeons and general practitioners.

“Medical doctors have a professional duty to report suspected torture of which they become aware, wherever it may be occurring,” the signatories write. “That professional duty is absolute and must be carried out regardless of risk to reporting doctors.”

The letter presents a timeline of deteriorating health for Assange inside the Ecuadorian embassy, with the UK government repeatedly denying him access to hospital treatment. In December 2015, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found that “Mr Assange’s health could have deteriorated to such a level that anything more than a superficial illness would put his health at a serious risk.”

The letter’s medical timeline ends with Assange’s current downward spiral inside Belmarsh. Signatories report their “serious concerns” about Assange’s fitness to stand trial in February 2020. Week-long US extradition hearings are due to start on February 24, with Assange still confined to Belmarsh Prison’s “health ward”—described by prisoners as the “hell ward.”

An addendum to the open letter cites a “climate of fear and intimidation surrounding the provision of medical care to Mr Assange.” It reports a psychological expert who complained of “difficulties in finding medical practitioners who were willing to examine Mr Assange” due to their fear of government reprisal. The signatories conclude, “That all this has been played out in the heart of London for many years is a source of great sadness and shame to many of us.”

With their open letter, doctors in the UK and internationally are refusing to be silenced. They have honoured their professional obligation and taken a courageous stand to protect the life of Julian Assange.

As Dr Frost told the World Socialist Web Site, “Sometimes in medicine, as in other spheres of life, extraordinary situations can only be solved by taking an educated leap into the unknown and seeking extraordinary solutions.”

The open letter is published here. Doctors from around the world can add their names to the current list of signatories by contacting: doctors4assange@gmail.comFull text at link

Related Link: https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/11/25/lead-n25.html
© 2001-2021 Independent Media Centre Ireland. Unless otherwise stated by the author, all content is free for non-commercial reuse, reprint, and rebroadcast, on the net and elsewhere. Opinions are those of the contributors and are not necessarily endorsed by Independent Media Centre Ireland. Disclaimer | Privacy