Julian Assange’s release frees up one UK prison cell, but why has it taken so long – and what about the others? | Duncan Campbell

This case is nothing to be proud of. As politicians stood by, he suffered within a chaotic system they have done little to fix

Finally. After more than five years locked inside HMP Belmarsh, Britain's most secure prison, and seven years confined to the Ecuadorian embassy in London, Julian Assange can breathe some fresh, free air. It is certainly a day to celebrate, but also one to demand answers. Why - why, for heaven's sake - has it taken so long? And what about all the others who languish in crazily overcrowded British jails?

It seems appropriate that Assange's release, on the basis of a deal that gives the US government the fig leaf of a guilty plea, occurred in the very week before a general election, in the country where he was detained for all those years. Voters seem likely to dispose of a government whose feeble home secretaries, from Priti Patel onwards, bowed the knee to the US on its extradition request when they could have easily followed the brave path that Theresa May took when she was home secretary in 2012, declining to allow the removal to the US of the hacker Gary McKinnon. But what lessons have any of our politicians - or our judges - learned?