Pamela Anderson visits Julian Assange in London prison as WikiLeaks chief faces possible extradition to U.S.
London -- Former "Baywatch" star Pamela Anderson visited her friend Julian Assange in a London prison on Tuesday. After the visit, she told journalists outside the facility that the WikiLeaks founder "does not deserve to be in a supermax prison."
Assange is in London's Belmarsh Prison serving a 50-week sentence for jumping bail in 2012. He is also being held pending an extradition request by the United States, where government prosecutors want to try him for allegedly hacking into a Pentagon computer.
The actress, who has defended Assange before and visited him multiple times while he holed up in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, told reporters Tuesday that he was innocent and being treated unfairly.
"It was great to see him, but this is just misrule of law in operation. It is absolute shock that he has not been able to get out of his cell," she said. "He's sacrificed to much to bring the truth out."
Assange insists he is a journalist who has done nothing wrong. While the U.S. government has never challenged the veracity of the secrets Assange spilled via WikiLeaks, the Justice Department has filed charges against that accuse him of illegally accessing the those materials in conjunction with former U.S. intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning.
In the first court hearing related to the U.S. extradition request, on May 5, Assange said he would not "surrender myself for extradition for doing journalism that has won many, many awards and protected many people."
With that, the legal battle over is extradition to the U.S. began.
The judge adjourned that hearing and scheduled the next procedural court date for May 30, with a more substantial hearing set for June 12.
