New York, May 20 (RHC)-- WikiLeaks activist Jacob Appelbaum said Hillary Clinton will make life difficult for Julian Assange due to “bitterness” over the organization's leaks.

Julian Assange, the founder of whistleblower website WikiLeaks, will remain a “political prisoner” under a U.S. Hillary Clinton presidency, The Guardian reported hacker and WikiLeaks representative Jacob Appelbaum as saying.  Appelbaum spoke during a panel session following the Cannes film festival premiere of “Risk,” a new documentary about Assange.

“Risk” is a new documentary by director Laura Poitras which follows Assange after he sought refuge in the Ecuadorean embassy in the United Kingdom as he faces extradition by Sweden over accusations of sexual molestation and rape by two Swedish women.

Assange argues the allegations are part of a campaign to discredit him and Wikileaks.  He has been in the Ecuadorean embassy in London since 2012 -- a virtual prisoner of the British government which refuses to give him safe passage.  Ecuador has provided him with political asylum, but he is unable to leave a surrounded embassy compound in the British capital.

Laura Poitras is also the director of Citizenfour, the Oscar-winning film about Edward Snowden, the U.S. National Security Agency employee who leaked information about the agency’s major surveillance program after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Appelbaum further slammed international media over their reporting on Assange and accused those in the U.S. of being propagandists.  He said: “Julian is a political prisoner who has been demonised in the press."

“Risk” shows Assange after he sought refuge from extradition in the Ecuadorian embassy, holding WikiLeaks meetings, working out with a boxing trainer and being interviewed by Lady Gaga.