The decision on extradition now rests with Patel, the hawkish home secretary who previously had to resign from the government for secret dealings with a foreign power, Israel, and is behind the government's current draconian plan to ship asylum seekers to Rwanda, almost certainly in violation of the UN Refugee Convention.
Melzer has repeatedly complained to the UK, the US, Sweden, and Ecuador about the many procedural abuses in Assange's case, as well as the psychological torture he has been subjected to. All four, the UN rapporteur points out, have either stonewalled or treated his inquiries with open contempt (p235-44).
Assange can never hope to get a fair trial in the US, Melzer notes. First, politicians from across the spectrum, including the last two US presidents, have publicly damned Assange as a spy, terrorist, or traitor and many have suggested he deserves death (p216-7).
And second, because he would be tried in the notorious "espionage court" in Alexandria, Virginia, located in the heart of the US intelligence and security establishment, without public or press access (p220-2).
No jury there would be sympathetic to what Assange did in exposing their community's crimes. Or as Melzer observes: "Assange would get a secret state-security trial very similar to those conducted in dictatorships" (p223).
And once in the US, Assange would likely never be seen again, under "special administrative measures" (SAMs) that would keep him in total isolation 24-hours-a-day (p227-9). Melzer calls SAMs "another fraudulent label for torture".
Melzer's book is not just a documentation of the persecution of one dissident. He notes that Washington has been meting out abuses on all dissidents, including most famously the whistleblowers Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden.
Assange's case is so important, Melzer argues, because it marks the moment when western states not only target those working within the system who blow the whistle that breaks their confidentiality contracts, but those outside it too - those like journalists and publishers whose very role in a democratic society is to act as a watchdog on power.
If we do nothing, Melzer's book warns, we will wake up to find 'the world transformed' or as he concludes - "Once telling the truth has become a crime, we will all be living in a tyranny" (p331).
The Trial of Julian Assange by Nils Melzer is published by Verso
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