LONDON - Today Wednesday, January 5th 2022, marks 1000 days that Julian Assange has been inside of Belmarsh maximum security prison in London United Kingdom (UK).

Assange is a remand prisoner, meaning he is not currently serving any sentence, but is merely behind bars at the request of the United States.

Stella Moris, a lawyer, has said that Julian's health continues to deteriorate as he recently had suffered a mini-stroke: 'Julian is struggling and I fear this mini-stroke could be the precursor to a more major attack. It compounds our fears about his ability to survive the longer this long legal battle goes on.'

She said he was kept in his cell for long periods and was 'short of fresh air and sunlight, an adequate diet and the stimulus he needs'.

Assange faced a major legal setback on Friday when the High Court overturned a judgment made this year preventing extradition to the US to face charges under the US Espionage Act.

The WikiLeaks publisher, 50, who is being held on remand in the maximum-security jail while fighting extradition to America, was left with a drooping right eyelid, memory problems and signs of neurological damage.

His lawyers successfully argued he would be kept in conditions in the US that could lead to a serious risk of suicide. The High Court reversed the earlier ruling after the US government offered assurances about his potential imprisonment.

Ms Moris and Assange have two sons, Gabriel, four, and Max, two, and have been engaged for five years. She said he had 'more or less' recovered – but she fears the attack shows his health is failing.

The US wants Assange to face allegations of conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defence information after Wikileaks published hundreds of thousands of leaked documents relating to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.