Stella Assange, the wife of the imprisoned WikiLeaks founder, has described Pope Francis as a “massive moral protection” following her meeting with him last week.
Francis met Julian Assange’s wife and their two children in the Vatican last Friday, when Ms Assange said they spoke about her husband’s “day-to-day suffering in prison, the cruelty of being away from family” and the strain of not knowing how long he’ll be incarcerated.
She told The Tablet that Francis is aware of the “urgency” of the situation, with her husband’s legal team expecting his appeal against the extradition to be heard this summer.
Assange, who has spent four years in London’s Belmarsh prison, faces a sentence of up to 175 years on espionage charges in the US for the military and diplomatic cables he published on WikiLeaks.
“He’s been following the case, and he understands the situation is critical,” she said of Francis.
“We discussed the way in which political prosecutions use processes to prolong incarceration and that Julian is not convicted of any crime, that he’s been in the wing of his prison the longest, but he’s there without formally being a prisoner. [Francis] has seen other cases like this before.”
At the end of the audience, Ms Assange gave Francis pictures of her and Julian’s wedding last year in Belmarsh – she said the Catholic prison chaplain blessed their marriage.
In 2021, the Belmarsh chaplain passed a message from the Pope to Mr Assange, while his wife has written to the Pope in the past. Ms Assange is a Catholic, with a Spanish mother and a Swedish father of Cuban descent. Her grandfather, Josep Maria Borgas, was a sculptor and some of his works are outside Girona Cathedral.
Ms Assange described the Pope as a “moral authority that transcends politics”, adding that he “has provided great comfort to our family” and that other Church figures had spoken to Francis about the Assange case.
Throughout his pontificate, Francis has consistently defended press freedom, saying that it is “an important indicator of the state of a country’s health”. He has also frequently expressed his solidarity with prisoners and spoken about long prison sentences being like a “hidden death sentence”.
While the Vatican released no details about the meeting, Pope Francis may be able to use his good relationship with President Joe Biden to influence the US authorities over the plight of Mr Assange.
To his supporters, Mr Assange, 52, has exposed important information about conditions in the US military’s Guantanamo Bay camp and the army's conduct during the 2003 Iraq War.
But prosecutors allege that he pushed Chelsea Manning, an intelligence analyst, to obtain classified diplomatic cables and military files that WikiLeaks later published, putting lives at risk.
The Holy See has not been immune to WikiLeaks, with cables released in 2010 showing diplomats describing the Vatican leadership in an unfavourable light, while in 2019 WikiLeaks released information about the Order of Malta’s public battle with Francis.
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