Julian Assange is celebrating his 52nd birthday in Belmarsh high security prison

Julian Assange is celebrating his 52nd birthday in Belmarsh high security prison..

After spending seven years inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London amid fears of US prosecution, he has since been kept at Belmarsh – a high-security prison – where his health has significantly worsened.

Assange remains behind bars in the harshest of circumstances for leaking classified documents in 2010 and 2011 that revealed war crimes, while the crimes which he exposed remain unpunished. 

In what is clearly a tactic from the UK and the US governments to censor others from coming forward and revealing similar crimes, Assange is being made an example of.

The abhorrent decision made by UK Home Secretary Priti Patel to approve his extradition to the United States is only further evidence of this.

We would like to wish Julian Assange a happy birthday, although it is hard to imagine that there could be anything ‘happy’ about it given the horrendous predicament he has been placed in.

His wife, Stella Assange, and supporters gathered outside of the British Home Office to call for his release from Belmarsh Prison.

It comes after Mr Assange lodged a last-ditch appeal to the UK High Court over the British government’s decision.

The appeal is the latest twist in the decade-long saga sparked by the publication of classified US documents.

In the US, he faces 17 charges of espionage and one charge of computer misuse.