WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange might not make it out of prison alive, his father fears.

John Shipton told reporters he had visited his son in a British prison earlier this week and needed to come to terms with the fact that he “may die in jail.”

“This is not the bitter disappointment of a father, this is simply fact,” he said Friday, according to Yahoo News.

“Julian may die in jail over a nine-year persecution for revealing the truth of war crimes,” Shipton continued.

“It is beyond obscene.”

Assange, 48, has been imprisoned since April, when he was booted from the Ecuadoran embassy in London. The whistleblower famously published classified military and diplomatic files in 2010 about US bombing campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq. He sought refuge at the embassy in 2012 in order to avoid an extradition order to Sweden, where he was accused of sexual assault.

Assange is currently fighting extradition by the United States where he could face up to 175 years in prison under the Espionage Act.