The only shock about the British Home Secretary鈥檚 decision regarding Julian Assange was that it did not come sooner.
Chief Magistrate Senior District Judge Paul Goldspring expressed the view in April that he was to send the case to Patel to decide on whether to extradite the WikiLeaks founder to the United States to face 18 charges, 17 grafted from the US Espionage Act of 1917.
Patel, for her part, was never exercised by the more sordid details of the case. Her approach to matters of justice is one of premature adjudication: the guilty are everywhere and only multiply.
When it came to WikiLeaks, such fine points of law and fact as a shaky indictment based on fabricated evidence, meditations on assassination and a genuine, diagnosed risk of self-harm, were piffling distractions. The US Department of Justice would not be denied.
鈥淯nder the Extradition Act 2003,鈥 a nameless spokesman for the Home Office , 鈥渢he Secretary of State must sign an extradition order if there are no grounds to prohibit the order being made. Extradition requests are only sent to the Home Secretary once a judge decides it can proceed after considering various aspects of the case鈥.
Evidently, overt politicisation, bad faith and flimsy reassurances from the US Department Justice on how Assange will be detained, do not constitute sufficient grounds.
But the cue came from the courts themselves, which have done a fabulous job of covering the US justice system with tinsel in actually believing assurances that Assange would not be facing special administrative detention measures聽or permanent captivity in the ADX Florence supermax in Colorado.
鈥淚n this case, the UK courts have not found that it would be oppressive, unjust or an abuse of process to extradite Mr Assange.鈥
In such a scatter-brained and amoral cosmos that marks decision making in the Home Office, no mention has been made of the surveillance operation against the publisher in the Ecuadorian embassy, orchestrated at the behest of the Central Intelligence Agency. None, either, of contemplated abduction or assassination, or the frail mental health Assange finds himself.
As late as from the group Doctors for Assange, comprising 300 doctors, psychiatrists and psychologists, noted that the Home Secretary鈥檚 鈥渄enial of the cruel, inhuman treatment inflicted by upon Assange was then, and is even more so now, irreconcilable with the reality of the situation鈥.
An umbrella grouping of 19 organisations, dedicated to press freedom and free speech,聽in April Patel, in reviewing the case, to appreciate that Assange would 鈥渉ighly likely鈥 face isolation or solitary confinement US conditions 鈥渄espite the US government鈥檚 assurances, which would severely exacerbate the risk of suicide鈥.
The co-chairs of the Courage Foundation鈥檚 Assange Defense Committee, Noam Chomsky, Daniel Ellsberg and Alice Walker, reflected on the depravity of the extradition order in a on June 17.
鈥淚t is a sad day for western democracy. The UK鈥檚 decision to extradite Julian Assange to the nation that plotted to assassinate him 鈥 the nation that wants to imprison him for 175 years for publishing truthful information in the public interest 鈥 is an abomination.鈥
As for Britain, it had 鈥渟hown its complicity in this farce, by agreeing to extradite a foreigner based on politically motivated charges that collapse under the slightest scrutiny鈥.
Similar views were expressed by 聽鈥 鈥渁 chilling message to journalists the world over鈥 鈥 and 聽鈥 鈥渁nother failure by the UK to protect journalism and press freedom鈥.
There was even concern from Conservative MP David Davis, who that Assange would not 鈥済et a fair trial鈥. The extradition law was, as matters stood, lopsided in favour of US citizens.
All this is consistent with Patel, who seems to relish the prospect of sending individuals to a place where human rights are marginal jottings on a policy paper. The British-Rwanda Migration and Economic Partnership, as it is euphemistically termed, is her pride and joy, albeit one currently facing strenuous legal opposition.
Under the arrangement, individuals crossing the channel will receive one-way tickets to Rwanda to have their claims processed without a prospect of settling in Britain. The Rwandan government, hostile to contrarians, the rule of law and refugees, will be subsidised for their pain and labours.
To this sadistic streak can be added her admiration for the Espionage Act being used to prosecute Assange.
This fact should have disqualified her in any country operating under the rule of law. Even as Prime Minister Boris Johnson faced a Conservative no-confidence vote this month, Patel鈥檚 passed its second reading in Parliament.
The bill articulates an offence of 鈥渙btaining or disclosing protected information鈥 that includes 鈥渁ny information 鈥 which either is, or could reasonably be expected to be, subject to any type of restrictions of access for protecting the safety and interests of the UK鈥.
In a polite nod of deference to US law, the proposed law states that an offence is committed when a person 鈥渙btains, copies, records or retains protected information, or discloses or provides access to protected information鈥 for a purpose 鈥渢hat they know, or ought reasonably to know, is prejudicial to the safety or interests of the United Kingdom鈥 and if 鈥渢he foreign power condition is met鈥.
The requirement there is that the act is 鈥渃arried out for or on behalf of a foreign power鈥, including instances where 鈥渁n indirect relationship鈥 exists.
Assange has 14 days to appeal this insidious rubber stamping of judicially sanctioned brutality. His legal team are hoping to use the High Court as the route to highlight the political dimension of the case and draw attention back to the way the extradition law was read.
If the defence fail, Assange will be sent across the Atlantic, entrusted to officials, some of whom considered murdering him, to be made an example of. It will be the clarion call to regimes across the world that punishing a publisher is something supposed liberal democracies can do as well, and as deviously, as anybody else.
[Dr Binoy Kampmark currently lectures at RMIT University.]