Pamela Anderson visits Julian Assange in prison
She declared that he is ‘the world’s most innocent man’
‘Baywatch’ veteran Pamela Anderson met with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in a London prison on Tuesday after which she declared that he is “the world’s most innocent man.”
Anderson, 51, joined WikiLeaks editor Kristinn Hrafnsson for Assange’s first social visit at Belmarsh Prison in southeast London. The summit came about a month after Assange’s dramatic arrest in the capital after the Ecuadorean Embassy, where he sought refuge seven years ago, revoked his political asylum.
Hacker-hipster Assange, 47, was indicted on a charge of helping US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning break into government computers in 2010. He is currently serving a 50-week sentence for jumping bail in 2012 and last week refused extradition to the US.
“Obviously, it’s been very difficult to see Julian here. And to make our way through the prison to get to him has been quite shocking and difficult,” Anderson told reporters afterward, protesting his “unfair” treatment. “He does not deserve to be in a supermax prison. He has never committed a violent act. He’s an innocent person.”
Hrafnsson said that Assange spends 23 hours a day in his cell, and only 30 minutes outdoors. He added that Assange “is bent not broken” but is being “persecuted for the simple fact of doing journalistic work.”
Anderson, a longtime Assange advocate, said that he is cut off from information and his children. She is now working to rally public support and solicit letters and funds for the controversial figure.
“He’s a good man. He’s an incredible person. I love him. I can’t imagine what he’s been going through,” she said. “This is just misrule of law and operation and absolute shock that he’s not been able to get out of his cell ... it’s going to be a long fight. He deserves our support.”
Following the visit, Anderson took to Twitter to declare his innocence. She also confirmed that the cloak she wore for the visit was steeped in British free-speech history and referenced 17th-century political figures John Lilburne and Richard Cromwell.
“He is treated as [the] most dangerous man in order to make him a criminal without him ever having done anything whatever wrong,” she wrote in a letter about Assange that she posted on Twitter. “The [world’s] most famous victim. People don’t even know why they’re mad at him. They say he’s bad. Justice depends on public opinion.”