Is Julian Assange a political prisoner?

If his real crime is ruffling the feathers of the powerful then the answer is yes ... As he languishes in Belmarsh this Christmas, Mary Dejevsky wonders why a man whose only conviction is breaching bail is being held in a category A prison

Moris speaks to the press after news that the US has won its extradition appeal (Getty)

Not long before the UK high court ruled that Julian Assange could be extradited to the United States, I was at the Frontline Club in London, where two of his most persuasiveadvocates were explaining his case.  About two-thirds of the way through the session, I suddenly realised that I had been here before.

I am not talking about the Frontline, a journalists’ hang-out near Paddington, where I have been many times. It was rather the combination of the bare boards of the top-floor meeting room, the decidedly “alternative” complexion of the audience, and the subdued passion of the speakers as they described a surreal world in which legal process was rarely what it seemed.

Altogether, the occasion reminded me of the gatherings that used to take place in the now defunct Soviet Union in support of political prisoners and dissidents, where the central figure, in this case, Assange, was invariably – and for entirely obvious reasons – absent. Assange, the founder and former editor of the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks – was then, as now, in prison on the other side of London, awaiting the latest stage in his fight to avoid extradition to the US.