Irish Examiner view: Extraditing Assange would be a disaster for democracy

Priti Patel has a decision of world-reverberating importance to make, which should worry us all

A van with an advert supporting Julian Assange circles Parliament Square in Westminster, London during the Wikileaks founder's extradition hearing at Belmarsh Magistrates' Court.

Within the next few days, Priti Patel will decide whether to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the US to face trial. It is a decision of world-reverberating importance and it is a worry that it is in the hands of someone whose record cannot be described as libertarian.

The British home secretary has experience in public relations, as a lobbyist, and as a career politician whose main decisions to date include a plan to send illegal immigrants to the central African country of Rwanda and a fumbled response to helping refugees from Ukraine find safe harbour in Britain. She is an ambitious and driven minister, self-declared admirer of Margaret Thatcher and unlikely, you might think, to want to upset an old and major ally.