'Held at your majesty’s pleasure': Julian Assange pens letter to King Charles from Belmarsh prison

Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder has sent a letter to King Charles requesting him to visit the UK prison where he has been imprisoned for more than four years. The letter describes the horrors of his existence there and is the first thing the Australian journalist and creator of WikiLeaks has written and released since his stay in London's Belmarsh jail.

Assange is an Australian computer programmer and founder of the whistleblower website WikiLeaks who gained international attention in 2010 when WikiLeaks published a series of leaked US government documents, including classified diplomatic cables and military documents related to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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In the letter, Assange makes satirical references to the UK government's intention to implement the largest increase in jail capacity in more than a century as well as the "culinary delights" of dining on two pounds per day.

“As a political prisoner, held at your majesty’s pleasure on behalf of an embarrassed foreign sovereign, I am honoured to reside within the walls of this world-class institution,” Assange wrote in the letter.

“On the coronation of my liege, I thought it only fitting to extend a heartfelt invitation to you to commemorate this momentous occasion by visiting your very own kingdom within a kingdom: his majesty’s prison Belmarsh,” he added.

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“One can truly know the measure of a society by how it treats its prisoners, and your kingdom has surely excelled in that regard...It is here that 687 of your loyal subjects are held, supporting the United Kingdom’s record as the nation with the largest prison population in Western Europe.”

Assange is charged with violating the US Espionage Act for his role in publishing classified documents. Assange's case has sparked debate about freedom of the press and government transparency, with some arguing that he is a whistleblower who exposed government misconduct. However, others view him as a criminal who endangered national security.

Assange remains in custody in the UK as of May 2023. Legal proceedings are underway into the case. Then UK Home Secretary Priti Patel on 17 June 2022 approved the extradition. But on 1 July 2022, Assange had formally appealed against it.

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The Wikileaks founder went on to elaborate and wrote about his late fellow prisoner. “Beyond the gustatory pleasures … you will also have the opportunity to pay your respects to my late friend Manoel Santos, a gay man facing deportation to Bolsonaro’s Brazil, who took his own life just eight yards from my cell using a crude rope fashioned from his bedsheets.”

“Listen closely, and you may hear the prisoners’ cries of ‘Brother, I’m going to die in here’, a testament to the quality of both life and death within your prison,” Assange writes adding, “I implore you, King Charles, to visit His Majesty’s Prison Belmarsh, for it is an honour befitting a king.

“As you embark upon your reign, may you always remember the words of the King James Bible: ‘Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy’. And may mercy be the guiding light of your kingdom, both within and without the walls of Belmarsh," he added.

Australian PM Albanese, who is attending King Charles’ coronation, said, “There is nothing to be served by his ongoing incarceration,” Albanese said, “And I am concerned about Mr Assange’s mental health. There was a court decision here in the United Kingdom that was overturned on appeal that went to Mr Assange’s health as well and I am concerned for him.”

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