Dear Queen Elizabeth In the Summer of 2012 I wrote to you asking for your intervention on humanitarian grounds in the case of Ms Marion Price in Northern Ireland. In my correspondence I made it clear that as a pacifist I had publicly opposed the violence of the IRA (and of all armies) but that Ms Price was gravely ill in prison and was in danger of imminent death without some intervention. You graciously replied to my plea informing me that you had passed it on to the Northern Ireland Secretary of State for consideration - and in the event Ms Price was released. Again I thank you sincerely for your intervention on humanitarian grounds. Now I have another request. It is for Mr Julian Assange, a non-violent whistleblower who revealed among other matters that some serious atrocities were committed by the US forces during the war in Iraq. On 1 May this year he was sentenced to fifty weeks in prison for skipping bail on an entirely different charge in Sweden - a charge that was later withdrawn. The judge stipulated that he was to serve only half of that sentence. His term expired on 22 September past but he has not been freed. He fears extradition to the USA where he faces a maximum sentence of 170 years for charges under the Espionage Act. Throughout his incarceration Mr Assange has been kept in solitary confinement for 23 hours of every day. I am informed that he has had but one half hour of fresh air per day and one half hour to "compete" with other inmates for the use of a telephone. I believe that if this is true, it constitutes unusual and inhuman punishment for a non-violent truth teller, especially given the fact that he had already spent almost seven years without fresh air in the Ecuadorian embassy and that his health is delicate. Since 22 September it would have been expected as normal for a prisoner in his situation to have the ordinary rights of prisoners restored to him but I understand that this has not happened. In light of this my request should normally have been twofold: (1) that you would exercise the royal prerogative of mercy to release this non-violent prisoner forthwith and (2) that you would appeal to his captors to treat him humanely and with respect while he is in their care and allow him all of the privileges accorded to other prisoners of whatever category. However, I understand that the royal prerogative is in the gift of the Home Secretary and given that he (the Home Secretary) has already signed the indictment to start the process of Julian's prosecution in the United States, there appears to be little hope that he would request a royal prerogative for mercy. I am appealing to you therefore, as a person endowed with humanity and a sense of justice, to intervene solely on a matter of administration; and, insofar as it is in your power, to ensure that the harsh conditions that continue to be imposed on Mr Assange in Belmarsh prison are relaxed significantly so that from now on he will be treated humanely and with respect, on an equal footing with every other prisoner, during his sojourn there. Thanking you With best personal wishes Justin Morahan Human rights activist and pacifist
[Address attached to letter
Sent by post, 10/10/2019]
