Stella Morris, partner of Julian Assange, with one of their children at protest rally

London, December 12 (RHC)-- The founder and publisher of WikiLeaks Julian Assange had a mini-stroke during his battle to avoid extradition from Britain to the United States, his fiancee Stella Moris said over the weekend in London.

On Friday, the U.S. government won an appeal at Britain’s High Court over the extradition of Assange, who faces spying charges over WikiLeaks’ publication of secret military documents a decade ago.

Stella Moris, the mother of Assange’s two young children, said it happened in late October on the first day of a U.S. government appeal against a ruling blocking his removal.  “Julian Assange suffered a stroke on the first day of the High Court appeal hearing on October 27th,” she tweeted.  “He needs to be freed.  Now!”

In an interview with British newspaper Mail on Sunday, she said the WikiLeaks publisher was struggling and she feared the 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 added.

“It urgently needs to be resolved.  Look at animals trapped in cages in a zoo.  It cuts their life short.  That’s what’s happening to Julian.  The never-ending court cases are extremely stressful mentally.”

The United States wants to put Assange on trial for WikiLeaks’ 2010 publication of thousands of top-secret military documents about the US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.  U.S. prosecutors have indicted Assange on 17 espionage charges and one charge of computer misuse.  The charges carry a maximum sentence of 175 years in prison.