Pretty much like Putin or Lukashenka. Both were elected democratically in the first run. The problem is, they stayed in power long after their democratic mandate expired.
Nils Melzer has severely criticised the USA for Gitmo, and also “cautiously” welcomed a British court’s refusal to expedite assigned the USA specifically on the grounds that the USA is likely to be much worse.
While Nils Melzer is critical of Assange’s treatment by U.K. authorities, the behaviour he criticised also includes the fact they were not willing to ignore him if he left his self imposed imprisonments in the embassy. Even with the most hostile interpretation I can manage (and I really don’t have a reason to like the U.K. government even before Johnson started doing Nixon impressions), Belmarsh prison, where Assange is currently being detained, is not even close to being on the list of the “Wests' most heinous of all torture chambers”.
Putin hasn't been removed - democratically or by violent coup - simply because he is popular with the people who have chosen to be ruled by him.
This doesn't align with the two minutes hate narrative that the West want to use in order to justify its direct interference in Russian democracy - in a sovereign country - so a lot of noise is made to occlude this fact and justify the usurpation of Russian politics.