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(CNN) - More than 60 doctors have signed an open letter saying they fear that the physical and mental health of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is so bad that he could die in prison if he does not receive urgent care.
Assange, 48, is being held at Belmarsh High Security Prison in London, where he is serving a sentence of almost one year for bail violations arising from 2012, when he entered the Ecuadorian embassy.
Assange is also fighting extradition to the United States, where he faces charges under the Espionage Law.
"From the medical point of view, with the evidence currently available, we have serious concerns about Mr. Assange's ability to be tried in February 2020," says the letter to the UK Interior Minister, Priti Patel.
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"It is our opinion that Mr. Assange requires an urgent medical evaluation by experts of both his physical and psychological health status ... If such an urgent evaluation and treatment did not take place, we have real concerns about the evidence currently available, that Mr. Assange I could die in prison. The medical situation is therefore urgent. There is no time to lose, ”doctors say in the letter.
The doctors based their assessment on the appearance before the Assange court on October 21 and a report by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Nils Melzer, who visited Assange in prison from Belmarsh on May 9, 2019.
On November 1, 2019, Melzer reiterated his alarm at the continuing deterioration of Assange's health since his arrest and detention earlier this year, saying that his life was now at risk.
The open letter also refers to how Assange spent seven years at the Ecuadorian embassy in London "in confined living conditions."
“Mr. Assange was visited and examined by several experts, each of whom expressed his alarm about the state of his health and requested that he be allowed to access a hospital. Such access was not allowed, ”says the letter.
To highlight why they intervened to talk about Assange's health, doctors write: "Doctors have a professional duty to report alleged torture they realize, wherever they occur."
The letter is signed by doctors from the United States, Great Britain, Australia, Sweden, Italy, Germany, Sri Lanka and Poland.
In May, Assange was charged with 17 charges under the United States Espionage Act for illegally encouraging, receiving and publishing national defense information in concert with former U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning. He was initially charged in April with a single conspiracy charge to commit computer intrusion related to helping Manning gain access to computers from the U.S. Department of Defense in 2010.
A judicial hearing in the United Kingdom at the end of February will establish whether Assange will be extradited to the United States.
Julian Assange