UK: Wikileaks' Julian Assange marries fiancée in London jail

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange married his partner Stella Morris at the Belmarsh prison in London on Wednesday. He has been detained at the prison since 2019. The wedding ceremony was attended by two official witnesses and two guards and Assange's father and brother.

The couple had met when Assange was living in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. They have two children together who were both present at the wedding.

"I am very happy and very sad. I love Julian with all my heart, and I wish he were here," said Morris after the wedding. "The love we have for each other carries us through. He's the most amazing person," she added.

According to The Guardian, the couple was given permission to marry last year in November by the prison governor. Convicts are allowed to marry in prison under the Marriages Act 1983. They are required to formally submit an application to the governor, however, the cost of the wedding is borne by the prisoner himself.

Assange is wanted on 18 charges in the US relating to the 2010 release by WikiLeaks of 500,000 secret files detailing aspects of military campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The US has sought his extradition from the UK and the trial in the case is underway. The US maintains that the leaks endangered lives.

The US Justice Department said last May that the "human resources" compromised by Assange "included local Afghans and Iraqis, journalists, religious leaders, human rights advocates, and political dissidents from repressive regimes."

The files also disclosed the secret identities of diplomats and government agents in hostile environments -- as well as locals who risked their lives by cooperating with the United States.

A ruling against Assange in the case could see the 48-year-old Australian jailed for 175 years if convicted on all 17 US Espionage Act charges and one count of computer hacking he faces.

Each stems from his site's release in 2010 of a trove of classified State Department and Pentagon files detailing the realities of the US campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq.