Pamela Anderson pitches for 'innocent' Assange after London visit

Hollywood actress Pamela Anderson met Julian Assange at the Belmarsh high-security prison here on Tuesday. It was the first high-profile visit by a celebrity since the 47-year-old WikiLeaks founder was booted out from Ecuadorian embassy last month. "He does not deserve to be in a supermax prison. He has never committed a violent act, he's an innocent person," CNN quoted Anderson as saying.

The 'Baywatch' actress, who is in a relationship with Assange, said that the latter has been "cut off from everybody," including his family and does not have any access to information. "He's a good man, he's an incredible person, I love him and I can't imagine what he's been going through," Anderson said.

The 51-year-old actress has visited Assange several times where he took refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy for nearly seven years. Anderson was accompanied by WikiLeaks Editor-in-Chief Kristinn Hrafnsson, who said that Assange was forced to spend 23 hours a day in the jail. He added that Assange and Anderson were "quite emotional" when they met.

"It is for me shocking to see my friend, an intellectual, a publisher, a journalist. A man who has transformed the world of journalism with his work is sitting in a high-security prison," Hrafnsson said. "Someone said that you could judge the civilisation of a society by visiting its prisons and frankly I have to say from my heart that this visit did not reflect well on this society here," he added.

On May 1, Assange was jailed for 50 weeks for skipping bail in 2012 to avoid being extradited to Sweden where he faced rape and sexual assault allegations made by two women and took political asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. Sweden discontinued its investigation into sex crimes against Assange in 2017. However, after his arrest in London last month, Swedish prosecutors said they were considering reopening the investigation.

Assange was wanted in Sweden for questioning over sexual assault and rape allegations, The whistleblower has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and said he sought refuge in the embassy over fears of being extradited on from Sweden to the US due to his work with WikiLeaks. On April 11, Assange was kicked out of the Ecuadorian embassy after his political asylum was revoked, putting an end to his almost seven-year stint.

Assange had told a London court that he will fight extradition to the US where he faces trial for conspiring to hack a US government website, one of the largest compromises of classified information in history. Washington has requested the extradition of the 47-year-old whistleblower.

(With inputs from agencies.)