End torture and medical neglect of Julian Assange

• Published in: The Lancet (British edition) Vol. 395; no. 10226; pp. e44 - e45
• Main Authors: Frost, Stephen, Johnson, Lissa, Stein, Jill, Frost, William
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 07.03.2020; Elsevier Limited
• Subjects: Abuse; Aggression; Assange, Julian Paul; Confidentiality; Diplomatic & consular services; Ethics, Medical; Freedom; Freedom of speech; Health care access; Health care industry; Health Services Accessibility; Health Status; Humans; Journalism; Medical ethics; Mental Health; Physicians; Politics; Prisons; Teaching hospitals; Torture; United Kingdom; United Kingdom; Austria; Sweden; United Kingdom > UK; United States > US; Sri Lanka; Norway; Poland; Italy; Australia; Germany
• ISSN: 0140-6736; 1474-547X
• DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30383-4

On Nov 22, 2019, we, a group of more than 60 medical doctors, wrote to the UK Home Secretary to express our serious concerns about the physical and mental health of Julian Assange.1In our letter,1 we documented a history of denial of access to health care and prolonged psychological torture. At the end of the hearing, he “told district judge Vanessa Baraitser that he had not understood what had happened in court”.6 We drafted a letter to the UK Home Secretary, which quickly gathered more than 60 signatures from medical doctors from Australia, Austria, Germany, Italy, Norway, Poland, Sri Lanka, Sweden, the UK, and the USA, concluding: “It is our opinion that Mr Assange requires urgent expert medical assessment of both his physical and psychological state of health. 7 We invite fellow doctors to join us as signatories to our letters to add further voice to our calls. Since doctors first began assessing Assange in the Ecuadorian embassy in 2015, expert medical opinion and doctors' urgent recommendations have been consistently ignored.