From a plea deal to a 2am prison call: how Julian Assange finally gained freedom

Protesters hold placards outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London in February during the appeal by Julian Assange against his extradition to the US. Photograph: Daniel Leal/AFP/Getty Images

It was, as his friends described it, the “last kick of the British establishment”. At 2am on Monday, Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, was woken in his small cell in the high-security Belmarsh prison, south-east London, and ordered to dress before being put in handcuffs.

It was the beginning of the end of Assange’s incarceration in Britain but it was going to be on his jailers’ terms.