STELLA ASSANGE - 'HIS KIDS WANT HIM HOME'

FIVE YEARS AFTER JULIAN ASSANGE'S IMPRISONMENT IN LONDON, HIS WIFE SPEAKS

To visit her husband, Julian Assange, in London's Belmarsh high-security prison, Stella Assange and the couple's children, Gabriel, 7, and Max, 5, must endure what she calls "onion layers" of security.

First, she's fingerprinted, then they are screened by an X-ray machine and metal detector. Their mouths and hair are examined, before a sniffer dog gives them a final once-over. But the long, stressful process is quickly forgotten once they reach the visitor's area.

"The kids are supposed to wait by my side," says Stella, a lawyer. "But after we come through the door and they see him, they just run up shouting, Daddy, Daddy!'"

For five years, this has been the way of life for the Assanges. Sentenced to 50 weeks' jail for breaching bail conditions in 2019, former hacker turned WikiLeaks co-founder Assange, 52, remains in a two-by-three metre cell years beyond his term, as his lawyers fight his extradition to the US over espionage-related charges.

"For at least 21 hours a day, he's in that cell," Stella, 40, tells WHO. "And when he's out, he's in a concrete yard. It's very harsh."