Jailed Julian Assange to get limited Internet access

MELBOURNE - Julian Assange, the founder of whistleblowing website WikiLeaks, will be getting limited access to the Internet while in jail.

Assange, 39, who is accused of sex offences in Sweden, has been transferred to the segregation unit of London’s Wandsworth prison, and was refused bail at an extradition hearing earlier this wee.

According to the Guardian, which was one of five news outlets given advance access to the latest WikiLeaks release of some 250,000 American diplomatic cables, Assange is thought to have asked to be housed separately from other prisoners.

It reported that Assange’s lawyer, Mark Stephens, said his client was “quite chipper - he seemed to be bearing up”.

Stephens said Assange had complained about daytime television and added he doesn’t have access to a computer, even without an Internet connection, or to writing material.

“He’s got some files but doesn’t have any paper to write on and put them in,” the Herald Sun quoted Stephens as telling the Guardian.

Assange reportedly asked for his personal laptop to be brought into the jail but was refused by prison authorities.

However, he will gain access to a computer with limited web access that he can use to work on his case under a British prison initiative named “access to justice”. (ANI)