The alternative perspective is that, for the same reasons recent cover stories have shown involving the US preparing to abduct Snowden if he ever left Russia, a

The alternative perspective is that, for the same reasons recent cover stories have shown involving the US preparing to abduct Snowden if he ever left Russia, and the fact the US continues to practice human rights violations in Gitmo without stopping, that nobody who is on the bad side of the US government has any valid reason to expect legal treatment in a country that has in the past ten years actively engaged in illegal torture and continues practicing illegal detainment. I said this elsewhere - if I committed a generic felony in the US, such as robbery or rape, and lived in the EU and was going to be extradited, I would not need to fear for my life (I would somewhat, since US prisons are extremely corrupt places, but that is mostly due to corruption and a lack of accountability within the prison system than something intentional) in the way someone who has actively worked against the interests of the US government in the international information scene through leaks or other reveals they don't like. You are not just involved in the general criminal justice proceedings when its personal between you and the CIA, and are much more likely to "disappear" and end up dead in a ditch months after the public forgets about you. Both Snowden and Assange have legitimate reasons to fear for their life, because rights and liberty and rule of law only last as long as you are playing along within the system as it is presented to you - when you start tearing down the curtains all bets are off.