Assange is serving a 50-week prison term for breaching bail conditions to avoid extradition to Sweden. He took refuge in the embassy in in 2012 to avoid extradition over sexual assault allegations, which he denies, but was arrested last month after his asylum was revoked.
Apparently the Guardian is happy to repeat that lie indefinitely, even as the confirmation of the real reason he sought and received asylum - obvious to any rational person for the past 8 years - has been published in every newspaper in the western world. I doubt Pravda ever reached such extremes of self-satirical mendacity. This is journalistic complicity not just in the security state's war on free speech but in torture. I would like DJ to answer whether he really thinks Ben Quinn and Kath Viner "sincerely believe" that Assange took refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy "to avoid extradition over sexual assault allegations".