is even less certain. On Wednesday , 421 days after he was arrested in London concerning sex assault allegations made by two Swedish women, the Australian will reach the final stage in his battle to avoid extradition to Stockholm to fight potential charges, when his case comes before the supreme court. And so his lengthy, surreal period of house arrest in a Norfolk mansion while fighting off, he recently revealed, the attention of the "hundreds" of besotted women who have turned up at his door, is coming to an end.

In February last year, a court ruled that Assange should be sent to Sweden to answer the accusations; he appealed, and lost. But two high court judges granted him leave to appeal to the highest British court, not onthe circumstances of his own case but on a point of law: namely, whether a prosecutor had sufficient authority to require someone's extradition, as in Assange's case. Many legal observers were surprised when the supreme court not only agreed to hear Assange's petition, but said seven judges, rather than the usual five, would preside, "given the great public importance of the issue raised". The court will sit for two days, on 1 and 2 February, though the judges are unlikely to deliver their written verdict for a number of weeks.

Vaughan Smith, who has hosted Assange at his stately home, Ellingham Hall, for much of the past year on bail (Assange moved out shortly before Christmas), said the WikiLeaks founder views the supreme court decision as a "vindication" of