Sputnik: What can you tell me about the part of the expert testimony which focused on what Julian Assange could expect to face in relation to the charges themselves?
John Rees: There was some speculation in court, driven largely by the prosecution, which was trying to intimate that, although the maximum amount of time that Julian would spend in jail if he were convicted on these charges is 175 years, that was really very unlikely and it was all much more likely to be in the 20-25-year range.
You know, apart from anything else, Julian Assange is 49 now; that would be for a considerable period of the rest of his life – if the best-case scenario were to be enacted
But I don’t think anybody who is following these proceedings or has followed the way in which this case has been pursued by the American administration, and has heard the language that Mike Pompeo, William Barr, and Trump himself have used, could sensibly put their hand on their heart and say: "oh, no; I'm sure these guys will give him the minimum possible term, not the maximum possible term of 175 years". I just don’t think that that's a remotely credible interpretation of the political context of this case