On the 30 June, Stella Assange and her two children were granted a private audience with Pope Francis at the Vatican. Mrs Assange has reported that the Pope is well aware of the urgency of the situation her husband Julian is in, as he awaits his appeal against extradition from England to the United States to face charges of violations of the US's 1917 Espionage Act.
To his defenders Julian Assange is being persecuted simply for revealing uncomfortable truths about the way the US and other countries wage war and hide from the general public the means they use to do so. US prosecutors allege that he enticed Chelsea Manning, a US soldier, to obtain classified military documents which were later published by Assange's Wikileaks organisation.
