Julian Assange Served With Extradition Notice By British Police

An anonymous reader writes "London's Metropolitan Police have delivered an 'Extradition Notice' to Julian Assange, the Wikileaks founder, who sought refuge and political asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London last week. Scotland Yard have said in a brief statement that 'the notice requires Julian Assange to attend a police station of our choosing at a set time.' SY also said, 'This is standard procedure in extradition cases and is the first step in the removal process. He remains in breach of his bail conditions and failure to surrender would be a further breach of those conditions and he is liable to arrest.' However, under international diplomatic arrangements, the British Metropolitan Police cannot actually go into the Ecuadorian embassy to arrest Mr Assange. Assange would have to leave the embassy to be lawfully arrested. This raises the following question of course: Is this the 'endgame' for Julian Assange as far as extradition is concerned? If the Ecuadorians fail to grant Assange political asylum, which is a possibility, will he be arrested by Metropolitan Police, and sent to Sweden to stand trial for two alleged counts of 'rape?' Will Sweden then hand Assange over to the United States, where many well known and quite senior politicians have publicly stated that they think 'Assange should be punished severely' for publishing confidential U.S. diplomatic cables on Wikileaks?"

Comments

Re:Scare quotes?

[ifwm]

No, it's not.

Yes it is.

The Swedish laws are not written in English, so they never once use the word "rape".

They filed a brief in the UK.

And is your point REALLY that Swedes don't speak English, so they don't use the word rape, so, it's not "rape by the legal definition of the country charging him"?

What the fuck?

Re:Hopefully...

[PopeRatzo]

he committed "unlawful coercion" when he held complainant 1 down with his body weight in a sexual manner; that he "sexually molested" complainant 1 when he had condom-less sex with her after she insisted that he use one; that he had condom-less sex with complainant 2 on the morning of 17 August while she was asleep; and that he "deliberately molested" complainant 1 on 18 August 2010 by pressing his erect penis against her body."

Oh shit. I hope my wife doesn't read that. She finds out that stuff is illegal, I'm done for. I'm too old to do time.

So, what's Ecuador like?

Re:Hopefully...

[Anonymous Coward]

Julian, take it easy mate.

Re:How does this work?

[VortexCortex]

You're joking, right? If countries exploited that silly technicality, then the response would be to put a flag on a diplomatic wheelchair or diplomatic rollerskates to get from the car to the plane.

I need me some of those diplomatic rollerskates. Do they make an inline model, or better yet a diplomatic skateboard? There's some capitol hills than need grinding and thrashing.

Re:Illogical all around

[s0litaire]

...And when has the UK EVER said NO to the US?
They probably have the undated "approve form" stamped and ready to go as soon as the US asks for it...