Christine Assange is desperate to hug her son, Julian, in his prison cell.

Christine Assange is desperate to hug her son, Julian, in his prison cell.

THE Sunshine Coast mother of jailed WikiLeaks mastermind Julian Assange has just one mission in mind: to hug her son.

Christine Assange, who has never before left her home in Australia, has landed in London to visit her son in jail.

She told the Sunshine Coast Daily that she needed to see her son and know he was well.

After a 24-hour flight to London, Mrs Assange was exhausted but not distressed.

If she was nervous it did not show as she pulled the hood of a black jumper over her head and walked out of the airport into the 4C winter night.

“I came here to be with my son. I want to see him, I want to see how he is,” she said.

Mrs Assange said the Australian government needed to do more to help her son.

“There’s Julia Gillard opening for Oprah … and my Julian is sitting here in prison,” she said.

“Is it more important to suck up to the Yanks than to look after your own people?”

Mr Assange is being held in an isolated cell at Wandsworth Prison ahead of his court appearance today.

He faces allegations of sexual assault on two women in Sweden.

Supporters of WikiLeaks have accused authorities of acting on political pressure to silence Mr Assange and the whistleblower website, which has started leaking more than 250,000 confidential US government cables.

Mr Assange will apply for bail as prosecutors push to extradite him to Sweden.

His mum said her son had a strong will but would be struggling while being held in a jail cell.

“It would be depressing for him. He likes his freedom and wide open spaces,” she said.

“He’s now in a cramped, cold, forbidding place.”

Mrs Assange said she was angry with Prime Minister Julia Gillard for suggesting her son was a criminal.

The Daily revealed on Sunday that Mr Assange had demanded Ms Gillard stop implying his guilt for fears it would encourage his assassination.

Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd has defended Mr Assange’s legal rights.

Mr Rudd emphasised that it was his decision as to whether Mr Assange’s passport would be revoked or not.

He said that decision would be made on advice from the Australian Federal Police and other authorities.

At the weekend, Mr Rudd said he had received no such advice.

Mrs Assange said she believed there was political pressure on Swedish authorities to charge her son.

“This hearing is a forerunner for the US to extradite him. If the US get their hands on him he will be jailed forever or he will be killed … that’s how serious this is,” she said.

Mrs Assange does not believe the sexual allegations against her son are true.

“The only reason it’s happening is because it’s Julian from WikiLeaks,” she said.