Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has been denied permission to attend the funeral of the late fashion designer Dame Vivienne Westwood.
As per The Sydney Morning Herald, Westwood’s family released a statement via Assange’s publicity team on Monday night saying they were deeply disappointed in the decision by London’s Belmarsh Prison, but were unsurprised.
Treatment of Assange has been “inhumane”
Julian Assange has been denied permission to leave prison to attend Dame Vivienne Westwood’s funeral https://t.co/0yUQrAK150
— Evening Standard (@EveningStandard) January 9, 2023
“[The decision] is unjust and in keeping with the inhumane treatment [Assange] has received from the UK authorities up to this point,” Westwood’s family said. “Julian has not been convicted of any crime, yet he is treated as if he is a terrorist. The only thing he is guilty of is publishing the truth.”
Westwood, a longtime friend and supporter of Assange, famously suspended herself in a birdcage in 2020 (pictured above) to protest the Wikileaks editor’s imprisonment. “It is not a crime to publish the truth,” she said at the time. She also supplied the wedding dress to Julian’s wife Stella in March last year.
“We are grateful to Vivienne’s family for their efforts to inform the prison of Vivienne’s wishes that Julian attend her funeral,” said Stella Assange following the prison’s decision. “Vivienne was courageous and called out the persecution of Julian from the start.
“We are disappointed at the refusal although cognisant that it is further proof that whatever the formal pretext, Julian’s indefinite, cruel and arbitrary imprisonment is punishing him for his political opinions.”
Westwood, a fashion icon and life-long political activist whose designs were integral to the UK’s 1970s punk movement, died in London last month at age 81. Assange continues to fight against extradition to the United States where he would face charges related to the publication of documents about the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.
Further Reading
Vivienne Westwood, Punk Fashion Designer, Dies Aged 81
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