Inside Belmarsh prison with Julian Assange, by Charles Glass (Le Monde diplomatique - English edition, February 2024)
(...) I put the tray with his hot chocolates, the Snickers, some muffins and my instant coffee on the table. I ask why only unhealthy food was available. He smiles and says I should see what they eat inside on a budget of £2 per inmate per day. Porridge for breakfast, thin soup for lunch and not much else for dinner.
Julian had thought prison meant communal meals at long tables, as in the movies. Belmarsh’s warders shove the food into the cells for prisoners to eat alone. It is hard to make friends that way. He has been there longer than any other prisoner apart from an old man who had served seven years. There are occasional suicides, he tells me, including one the night before.
Hizbullah hostages had radios (...) At my urging, I tell Julian, he wrote to the prison governor. A media story that Belmarsh was denying Assange a privilege that Hizbullah granted hostages would be bad publicity. The prison gave Julian his radio.
#assange #belmarsh #uk #usa