While facing extradition to U.S., Julian Assange set to marry his long-term partner in prison

American prosecutors allege that Assange leaked a trove of secret military documents and diplomatic cables about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Supporters of Assange say that he is a champion of free speech who exposed information on classified U.S. activities abroad.

The couple’s wedding — attended by four guests, two witnesses and two security guards — was set to take place during official visiting hours at Belmarsh, the London area prison where Assange has been held since April 2019, after the Ecuadoran Embassy rescinded his asylum.

“Today is my wedding day. I will marry the love of my life,” Stella Moris, 38, wrote in the Guardian. The couple, who met in 2011, have two sons together.

Moris, Assange’s former lawyer, detailed the unusual circumstances of her wedding day.

“At lunchtime today, I will go through the gates at the most oppressive high security prison in the country and be married to a political prisoner,” Moris wrote. “Every part of this private event is being intensely policed, from our guest list to the wedding picture,” she said.

She said that the witnesses and photographer they requested were denied by authorities because they work in the press and there were concerns that their wedding photo could be a “security risk.”

“How absurd. What kind of security threat could a wedding picture pose?” she asked. “I am convinced that they fear that people will see Julian as a human being. Not a name, but a person. Their fear reveals that they want Julian to remain invisible to the public at all costs, even on his wedding day, and especially on his wedding day.”

British fashion designer Vivienne Westwood, who has supported Assange in the past, made Moris’s wedding gown and Assange’s tartan kilt. Moris was photographed with their two young sons, who also wore kilts, at the prison entrance.

Earlier this month, Assange suffered a legal setback when Britain’s Supreme Court refused to hear his appeal over a judgment in December that found in favor of U.S. extradition, saying his application did “not raise an arguable point of law.”

But the Australian whistleblower’s long-running legal saga is not over yet. He can still appeal his deportation from Britain via other means. For instance, after his case is approved by Britain’s home secretary, Assange can try to challenge that decision. He could also try to revive other issues of law raised in lower courts that his legal team has not yet appealed.