Over 60 doctors have written an open letter warning about the deteriorating health conditions of Julian Assange, the founder of whistleblowing website Wikileaks.

The 48-year-old Australian citizen is currently serving a 50-week sentence in a prison in the United Kingdom before he will be extradited to the United States on espionage charges related to his work.

In the letter to British Home Secretary Priti Patel released on Monday, the doctors said they feared Assange’s health was so bad that he could die while in jail.

The doctors said that he must be moved from the top-security Belmarsh prison in southeast London to a hospital.

“Mr. Assange requires urgent expert medical assessment of both his physical and psychological state of health,” the doctors agreed in the letter.

“Were such urgent assessment and treatment not to take place, we have real concerns, on the evidence currently available, that Mr. Assange could die in prison. The medical situation is thereby urgent. There is no time to lose.”

Julian Assange

Assange used the organization to publish secret papers online, including classified military and diplomatic files in 2010 about US bombing campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq that proved highly embarrassing to the US government.

He was arrested in London after the Ecuadorian government revoked his asylum status due to pressures from Washington. The activist is still fighting the US bid to extradite him from Britain.

Source: Presstv