Assange asks for prison release to attend Vivienne Westwood’s funeral

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Wikileaks founder Julian Assange requested leave from prison to attend the funeral of his friend Dame Vivienne Westwood, according to his wife Stella Assange.

Assange and Dame Vivienne had been friends for over a decade, with the designer being a prominent supporter of his stay in the Ecuadorian embassy and incarceration.

Vivienne, known as the Godmother of Punk, died on Thursday, aged 81, surrounded by her family in south London. Sadly, Assange is now looking for a way to say farewell despite being imprisoned in London's Belmarsh prison fighting extradition to the United States.

The death of the designer inspired Wikileaks founder Julian Assange to offer his first remark since being imprisoned in 2019.

Assange expressed his deepest sympathy for Vivienne’s loss, stressing that “Vivienne was a Dame and a pillar of the anti-establishment,” in a tweet published by his wife Stella.

“Bold, creative, thoughtful, and a good friend,” Assange described the style icon.

Julian Assange: “Vivienne was a Dame and a pillar of the anti-establishment. Bold, creative, thoughtful and a good friend. The best of Britain. She will be missed terribly by me and many others.” pic.twitter.com/a8ePakyiIN

— Stella Assange #FreeAssangeNOW (@Stella_Assange) December 31, 2022

He also highlighted that she represented “the best of Britain.”

Assange added: “Vivienne was a rebel at heart. Julian and I loved her company. Her gift to us took our wedding to the next level so there was a lot of attention and she just had this incredible talent for visuals and for messaging.”

“She will be missed terribly by me and many others,” he sorrowfully concluded.

To protest his possible extradition, Vivienne dressed as a canary and suspended herself within a massive birdcage outside The Old Bailey in July 2020.

According to Assange's wife, a request for Julian to attend the funeral has been sent to his counsel, and she “knows that Julian would want to honor” the high-profile advocate.

However, while it is "up to prison governors to decide on a case-by-case basis" whether such a leave of absence will be granted, "prison service spokesman Alan Shelby [said] it was unlikely such a request would be granted as this kind of leave was only meant for close relatives," according to a leading British state-media outlet.

A flashback

As the Biden administration calls for the freedom of the press all over the world, especially in the countries it is opposed to, Australian WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is still locked up in the United Kingdom awaiting his extradition to the United States since he was removed from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London three years ago and arrested by British police.

Assange is currently facing prosecution in the United States under the Espionage Act, which marks a precedent, as the legislation was never used before against classified information being made public. In Assange's case, he's been unlawfully charged in the US with 17 counts of "espionage" and one count of computer misuse in connection with WikiLeaks' disclosure of tens of thousands of military and diplomatic documents - whereby Assange exposed the US war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan - that whistleblower Chelsea Manning had disclosed.

For months now, however, there has been a paramount effort from international - such as Mexico's President - and US politicians, activists, and even renowned newspapers and media outlets - such as The Guardian and The New York Times - to urge the Biden administration to move against Assange's extradition.

The United States brought criminal charges against Assange under former US President Donald Trump in 2019.