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It’s terribly saddening to think about what Julian Assange has went through, is going through and what is yet to come. It would be different if he was guilty of any of the accusations but he’s not. He’s innocent and his treatment is atrocious.

I cannot even begin to imagine the loneliness or the feeling of being deserted he must feel. Like a genie stuck in a bottle, he spent nearly 7 years isolated, tortured and threatened in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. Many of his friends betrayed him, the media attacked him ferociously and he was being maliciously abused by the U.S., the U.K., Sweden and then finally, Ecuador.

Julian is a strong, courageous man but everyone has a breaking point. A point where the constant bullying and abuse starts to affect them psychologically. It begins to erode away at one’s confidence, a person’s feelings of security and eventually causes severe depression. Viewing videos and pictures of Assange before he entered his stay at the Embassy, you see a very happy, go lucky person, a man who is on top of the world. Pictures now show a man bent, fixable but starting to feel it.

I am grief stricken every time I watch recent videos of his arrest and incarceration. He doesn’t look defeated yet, but he looks exhausted, depressed and nervous. What they have done to him is inconsolable. They can never give him back in reparations what they have taken from him and they continue to try to destroy him.

Julian Assange is a human being with feelings, a heart and a soul. He is caring and gentle. He fought for justice for the innocent who were tortured and butchered by war criminals and as a reward for having the courage and strength to expose them, he has been tormented, threatened and sold. What kind of world are we living in when the criminals walk free peacefully and the journalist who exposed them sits behind bars? There is no justice in his incarceration, only the purest evil has put him there.

His suffering is what pushes me so hard to fight. It keeps me awake brainstorming for ideas to free him. His arrest hurt me as much as losing a family member. Knowing the depression and the gut wrenching fear he must feel, drives me to write even after a 10 hour day in a hot factory. His courage, strength and love pushes me to want to change things. He is an inspiration and he should also be a reminder that if we do not fight to change our world, we may suffer the same fate. We must free Assange to free ourselves of the tyranny his persecution represents.