BRITISH authorities are playing the role of executioner in the case of Julian Assange, his fiancée warned today after the journalist suffered a stroke in prison.

Mr Assange, who could be extradited to the United States to be prosecuted for exposing the nation’s war crimes, was left with a drooping right eyelid, memory problems and signs of neurological damage.

Stella Moris blamed the mini-stroke on the “constant chess game over his future.”

She said: “His incarceration is having a catastrophic effect on his health.

“The US government plotted to kill him and have found a way to do so — get the UK state to play the role of executioner.”

Referring to the 2018 killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, she added: “This is a slow-motion Khashoggi playing out in the heart of London.

“It is horrifying that Britain has let itself be instrumentalised by a foreign power to bring about travesty.”

News of Mr Assange’s stroke brought messages of support and anger from human rights activists and campaigners.

Professor Nils Melzer, UN special rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, tweeted: “Assange’s stroke is no surprise.

“As we warned after examining him, unless relieved of the constant pressure of isolation, arbitrariness and persecution, his health would enter a downward spiral endangering his life.

“The UK is literally torturing him to death.

“As Assange clearly was not medically fit to attend his own trial through video link, how can they even discuss whether he is fit to be exposed to a show trial in the US, a country that refuses to prosecute its torturers and war criminals but persecutes whistle-blowers and journalists?”

Stop the War Coalition convener Lindsey German said: “Hearing the terrible news about Julian Assange, I can’t see that this is anything but torture by government.”

The group’s national officer and campaigner for Mr Assange’s release, John Rees, told the Star: “Everyone connected with Julian Assange, those who have visited him in jail, his lawyers, his family, have been saying for months if not years that his health has been deteriorating in Belmarsh.”

He said the US should drop all charges and the UK courts grant Mr Assange bail “instantaneously.”