Mick Clifford: Jailing Assange would be a blow to democracy — and it may never recover

The vagaries of Assange’s character are irrelevant in a case where the US government is attempting to curtail the freedom of the press

Julian Assange faces 18 counts of espionage and a possible sentence of 175 years in prison. Photo: Dominic Lipinski/PA

THE next two days could well decide whether Julian Assange spends the rest of his life in prison. 

How long that life would last were it subjected to the privations of the US prison system is open to conjecture. The hearing in London opening today is an appeal by the US government against the refusal of the British high court to extradite Assange for alleged spying.