Julian Assange’s plea deal: a suitable end to a grubby saga

If the choreography plays out as planned, it will mark the end of a long and unedifying legal drama. Mr Assange was first arrested in Britain in 2010 after Sweden said it wanted to question him over sex-crime allegations (these were later dropped, and he denied them.) He claimed asylum in Ecuador’s embassy in London, where he lived for seven years. After Ecuador ran out of patience with him (at one point it claimed that he had smeared faeces on the embassy wall), British police removed Mr Assange and arrested him again.