Julian Assange
Will the Wikileaks founder be extradited to the US?
IT’S NOW SIX-AND-A-HALF YEARS since Julian Assange walked into the Ecuador embassy in London to claim asylum. Yet his life continues to surprise. In recent months the Wikileaks founder has been offered Ecuadorian citizenship and found himself in a “romantic struggle” with former Baywatch star Pamela Anderson.
Yet it’s a piece of legal paperwork discovered in the Eastern District of Virginia, in the US, that’s likely to have the most lasting impact. Filed in November, the forms accidentally revealed a reference to previously unknown criminal charges against Assange.
Alongside this a supporting note added that the forms “need to remain sealed until Assange is arrested”. More suspicious yet, the filing was a motion to seal the charges – meaning they would be kept secret “due to the sophistication of the defendant and the publicity around the case”.
Given that neither Assange nor his legal team had any knowledge of the charges, it obviously came as something of a surprise. “We had absolutely no information whatsoever,” Australian human rights lawyer Jennifer Robinson tells WHO. “We don’t even know what the charges are.”
The bigger question is, how this will play out for Assange? The Wikileaks editor initially sought asylum because he feared a Swedish criminal trial (now collapsed) would lead to his extradition to the US. Thanks to the mistake in Virginia, it now appears he was right all along.
“It confirms everything that we have been concerned about, been talking about, worrying about since 2010,” adds Robinson. “The upside is that we know all of our concerns were valid, but it’s the most thoroughly unsatisfying ‘ We told you so’ you could imagine.”
Robinson, her colleagues and a pack of American journalists are now doing all they can to have the indictment unsealed.
Their argument is simply that “the cat is already out of the bag,” says Robinson. “We know you’ve done it, so you should show us what it is.”
In the meantime, Assange must remain in the embassy which, despite being a stone’s throw from Harrods, provides little more than food, warmth and shelter. “His health is deteriorating,” Robinson says of the Wikileaks founder, whose capacity to speak publicly is now severely restricted.
“For the past six months he has basically been in solitary confinement because he wasn’t permitted to have telephone, internet or visitors, only lawyers. I joke that it’s pretty degrading treatment when the only visitor he gets to see is me!” •
Seyat’s mother, Fatima, was anything but shy in her opinion of her son’s partner, Jess, and it appears despite going through with the wedding, their relationship is tenser than ever.
Are you still together? Jess: Yes! We are very much still together. How has this experiment changed your relationship? It definitely tested our relationship at times, due to the emotional impact it was having on me, but overall it has brought us together and made us much stronger. [It also] really reinforced how much we love each other and that we are strong enough to overcome whatever struggle gets thrown our way. How has your relationship changed with your in-laws? Unfortunately, there hasn’t been much of a change with my in-laws. I haven’t had much, if any, contact with Seyat’s mum after the show finished filming. I made the effort to get her white roses as a sort of peace offering and to apologise for the struggle she went through on the show, as I did feel bad for her. However she mentioned to me that she didn’t see Seyat and me as having a real marriage. I still felt the same hostility and unwelcomeness from her as I did before the show. I thought it was the best decision for me to give her some space and live back with my parents until Seyat and I move out together. I still hold hope that one day I will have a healthy relationship with Seyat’s mum. I’ll always fight to show that what Seyat and I have is real.
Do you regret going on the show?
I don’t have one regret about going on the show. It is disheartening that I didn’t make as much progress as the other couples. Although I didn’t get the outcome I wanted, I know that I gave it my all and really made the effort to build a relationship with Fatima. The show also taught me so much and opened me up a lot as to the reasoning behind why Fatima acts the way she does at times, and really taught me how to be strong and deal with confronting situations.
Do you want to have children?
Children are definitely on the cards. Not any time in the near future, as we are both young and still focusing on our careers and ourselves as a couple before we think about children. I would ideally want to finish university and go travelling with Seyat for a few months before we started thinking about children. But yes, in the future there sure will be little Jess and Seyats running around!
What was your lowest point on the show?
Probably after Fatima offered me the $10,000 and I told Seyat about it and I didn’t receive much support at all. At that point, I felt like everything was stacked against me and I was alone. I didn’t know what else I was supposed to do if I didn’t have the support from Seyat. That was one of my biggest fears going into this show, as I knew it was going to be really difficult for me emotionally, as I already suffered from anxiety, and going into this, I knew I would have to try to overcome it. I really needed Seyat’s support above all else.