Pope meets with wife and family of Julian Assange, who says pontiff ‘concerned’ by his suffering

[mwai_chat context=”Let’s have a discussion about this article:nnVATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis met Friday with imprisoned WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s wife Stella, who said the pope’s gesture in receiving her was evidence of his “ongoing show of support for our family’s plight” and concern over her husband’s suffering.In an interview with The Associated Press after the audience, Stella Assange recalled that Francis had sent a letter to her husband in March 2021, during a particularly difficult period.
“He has provided great solace and comfort and we are extremely appreciative for his reaching out to our family in this way,” she told AP. “He understands that Julian is suffering and is concerned.”
Assange has spent four years in Britain’s Belmarsh Prison fighting extradition to the U.S., where he faces up to a 175-year sentence on espionage charges for publishing classified military and diplomatic cables through WikiLeaks.
Before that, Assange had taken asylum for seven years in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London in an attempt to avoid extradition to Sweden over sexual assault allegations.
Sweden dropped the sex crimes investigations in November 2019 because so much time had elapsed, but British judges have kept Assange in prison pending the outcome of the long-running extradition case.
The Vatican didn’t release any details of the private audience, other than to confirm that …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]