When judges in London now decide whether Julian Assange will be extradited to the USA, it will not just be about one man’s life. But also about the continued existence of a democratic principle.
Even those who have always taken a special interest in the fate of the world’s most famous prisoner have recently found it difficult to keep track of things. What is the situation now in the seemingly endless struggle over the possible extradition of Wikileaks founder Julian Paul Assange to the USA, where he is to be tried for violating the Espionage Act? The law, which dates back to the First World War, is actually intended to prosecute traitors – but now the Australian Assange faces up to 175 years in prison. He has been incarcerated in the high-security prison in Belmarsh near London for four years, while British judges weigh in on the case again and again.