"In July 2010, WikiLeaks published the Afghan War Diary, one of the biggest leaks in military history. The documents provided evidence of war crimes and torture committed by the US armed forces. Shortly afterwards, Sweden issued an arrest warrant for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on probable cause of rape, and a US grand jury secretly started investigating him for espionage. After both Sweden and Britain refused to protect Assange from extradition to the US, he sought refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he stayed for the next seven years. When Ecuador finally turned him over to Britain in 2019, the US immediately demanded his extradition and threatened him with 175 years in prison. Nils Melzer, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, initially declined to get involved. Only when he visited Assange in prison and researched the facts did he begin to see through the deception and to recognize the case for what is really was: a story of a political persecution. Melzer's findings are explosive: Assange has faced grave and systematic due process violations, judicial bias, and manipulated evidence. He has been exposed to constant surveillance, defamation and threats, and suffered prolonged psychological torture. Melzer's compelling investigation shows how, through secrecy, impunity and, crucially, public indifference, unchecked power has spun out of control and risks annihilating Western democracy and the rule of law." --Provided by publisher.