The groom will wear a specially tailored Vivienne Westwood checkered kilt in honor of her Scottish roots.
The bride will be wearing a long wedding dress with one of the designer’s signature corsets.
But a quarter of the attendees at the wedding party will be occupied by high-security prison guards, and one of the cameras recording the event will be part of the video surveillance system inside HMP Belmarsh in South London.
This is an extraordinary secret wedding planned by publisher WikiLeaks and his fiancee, lawyer Stella Maurice, for March 23rd.
Before she says “Yes”, the bride will be searched several times, including in her mouth, behind her ears, under her feet, and in her hair. It will go through security scanners and be checked by a metal detector and possibly sniffer dogs.
A quarter of the wedding party attendees will be guarded by high security prison guards and one of the cameras recording the event will be part of the video surveillance system inside HMP Belmarsh in South London. This is an extraordinary secret wedding planned by publisher WikiLeaks and his fiancee, lawyer Stella Maurice, for March 23rd.
She will also be searched in her wedding dress and fingerprinted four times.
After a civil ceremony and the blessing of a Catholic chaplain in the presence of their two young sons, the new Mr. and Mrs. Julian Assange will be escorted back to the prison’s common visiting hall.
“This is not the wedding we planned — in a church in the outside world, surrounded by family and friends,” admits 39-year-old Stella.
“But we choose to take control of our lives. We’re doing this out of love, for each other, for our sons, and because Julian’s life has been put on hold long enough to take away many years of family time, which is unacceptable.”
The couple got engaged during Assange’s seven-year exile at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, avoiding extradition to America.
Now, with the 50-year-old man facing the third anniversary of his detention in Belmarsh in April, they have decided to spend their wedding behind bars.
Stella, who shares four-year-old Gabriel and three-year-old Max with a publisher, said prison officials did “the bare minimum” to help and withheld their request to let a wedding photographer into the prison, which had previously opened its doors to a documentary film crew.
She is also upset that they have been banned from blessing the prison chapel where Assange prays, even though the space intended for their civil ceremony is right next door.
After a civil ceremony and the blessing of a Catholic chaplain in the presence of their two young sons, the new Mr. and Mrs. Julian Assange will be escorted back to the prison’s common visiting hall.
In addition, Belmarsh Governor Jenny Louis orders the couple’s four guests and two witnesses to leave the prison the minute the service ends.
Last night, Stella said, “All we want is to have a photographer we trust to get the right shots of us on our wedding day, just like any other couple.”
“I think the DOJ and Belmarsh are very nervous about the strong images that show Julian as a normal man getting married, just a person.
“I feel like they are just trying to get Julian out of the public eye. If people see him at his own wedding, they will be reminded that he is still in custody and that what is being done to him cannot be considered fair or humane.
“I feel like this is an attempt to remind Julian on his wedding day that his life is needlessly interrupted.”
Belmarsh Governor Jenny Louis orders the couple’s four guests and two witnesses to leave the prison the minute the service ends.
The United States wants to extradite him to face charges of conspiring to obtain and disclose US defense information after WikiLeaks released hundreds of thousands of leaked documents relating to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
In 2019, he was pulled out of his embassy exile, arrested and imprisoned in Belmarsh, where his mental and physical health is known to have deteriorated. He had a ministroke last year.
The couple met ten years ago when Stella became a WikiLeaks lawyer. They have been trying to get married in prison since May last year, and in October filed a lawsuit against Justice Minister Dominic Raab, challenging the obstacles to their marriage request.
They still don’t know if Stella will be allowed the bride’s bouquet. One thing that has been resolved is Vivienne Westwood’s permission to send Assange’s wedding attire to jail. A longtime supporter of Assange, the designer made his kilt and Stella’s dress as wedding gifts.
The couple hope to have a wedding reception when Assange is a free man. As for the honeymoon? “One day being at home together is the most exotic place we can imagine,” Stella said.
A spokesman for the prison service said last night, “All prison weddings are arranged in accordance with established prison service policy.”