Julian Assange
THE US government has reneged on repeated representations about prisoner care made to British and European courts in an extradition case. Assurances that solitary confinement in ADX Colorado would not be the ultimate destination of the subject of the extradition request were forgotten once it was granted.
Lindsay Lewis, one of Abu Hamza’s US lawyers, was giving evidence to Julian Assange’s extradition hearing in London today. Hamza was extradited from the UK in 2012, after repeated representations about the quality of care he would receive if he was convicted in the US.
Despite these assurances, Hamza has scarcely left his cell for eight years and is denied even the basic treatment required to deal with his considerable disabilities. “Dental care is enormously important to him because he has to use his teeth to open cans to eat”, Lewis told the court. “When he was in a UK prison he was visited four times a day by nursing staff. He receives no daily medical help of that kind in ADX Colorado”.
As Palestine Action prisoners go weeks without food, alleging dangerous neglect and detention without trial, campaigners warn that a near-total media blackout is hiding a crisis that could turn fatal – and fuel a growing wave of public anger. ELIZABETH SHORT reports
Groups are urging the US government to secure the 16-year old’s release as his mental and physical health decline dramatically after nine months inside Ofer prison, writes LINDA PENTZ GUNTER
