Vivienne Westwood tartan, a Scots twist (and gaggle of guards on the guest list) as Assange weds in jail
THE groom will wear a specially made Vivienne Westwood tartan kilt in honour of his Scottish roots. The bride will wear a full-length wedding dress with one of the designer’s signature corsets.
But a quarter of the wedding party will be maximum-security prison guards and one of the cameras recording the occasion will be part of the CCTV inside HMP Belmarsh in South London.
This is the extraordinary secret wedding planned by the WikiLeaks publisher and his fiancee, lawyer Stella Moris, for March 23.
Before she says ‘I do’, the bride will be searched multiple times, including inside her mouth, behind her ears, under her feet and in her hair. She will pass through security scanners and be checked by a metal detector and possibly sniffer dogs.
She will also be patted down in her wedding gown and fingerprinted four times.
After a civil ceremony and a blessing by a Catholic chaplain in the presence of their two young sons, the new Mr and Mrs Julian Assange will be escorted back into the prison’s general visiting hall.
‘It’s not the wedding we would have planned – in a church in the outside world, surrounded by family and friends,’ Stella, 39, admits.
‘But we’re choosing to take control of our lives. We’re doing it for love, for each other, for our sons and because Julian’s life has been put on hold for long enough, robbing him of years with his family, and that is unacceptable.’
The couple got engaged during Assange’s seven-year exile in the
‘It’s not the wedding we would have planned’
Ecuador Embassy in London while avoiding extradition to America.
Now that the 50-year-old is facing the third anniversary of his remand in Belmarsh in April, they have decided to press ahead with their wedding behind bars.
Stella, who shares Gabriel, four, and Max, three, with the publisher, said the prison authorities have done ‘the bare minimum’ to help and have stalled on their request for a wedding photographer to be allowed into the prison, which has previously opened its doors to a documentary crew.
She is also distressed they have been banned from having their blessing in the prison chapel where Assange worships, even though the room designated for their civil ceremony is right next door.
In addition, Belmarsh’s Governor Jenny Louis is ordering the couple’s four guests and two witnesses out of the prison the minute the service is over.
Last night Stella said: ‘All we want is to have a photographer we trust to take proper pictures of us on our wedding day, like any other couple.
‘I think the Ministry of Justice and Belmarsh are extremely nervous about strong images which show Julian as a normal man getting married, just being human.
‘I feel as if they are just trying to make Julian disappear from the public eye. If people see him at his own wedding, they’ll be reminded he is still on remand and that what is being done to him can’t be considered fair or humane.
‘I feel this is an attempt to remind Julian on his wedding day that his life is being needlessly disrupted.’
The United States wants to extradite him to face allegations of conspiracy to obtain and disclose American defence information following WikiLeaks’ publication of hundreds of thousands of leaked documents relating to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. He was dragged out of his embassy exile in 2019, arrested, and locked up in Belmarsh. He had a mini-stroke last year.
The couple met a decade ago when Stella became a WikiLeaks lawyer. They have been attempting to marry in prison since May last year, and in October launched legal action against Justice Secretary Dominic Raab, challenging the obstacles to their wedding request.
They still do not know whether or not Stella will be allowed a bridal bouquet. One thing which is settled is permission for Vivienne Westwood to send Assange’s wedding outfit into the prison. The designer has made his kilt – Assange’s maternal ancestors moved to Australia in the 19th Century from Scotland and Ireland – and Stella’s gown as a wedding gift.
The couple hope to have a wedding reception when Assange is a free man. As for a honeymoon? ‘Being together at home one day is the most exotic destination we can imagine,’ said Stella.
A Prison Service spokesman said last night: ‘All weddings in prisons are arranged according to established Prison Service policy.’