One Year Since Assange Took Refuge in Ecuadorian Embassy

Daniel_Stuckey writes with an article marking the one year anniversary of Julian Assange seeking asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy. From the article: "Uninterested in facing U.S. justice, Assange said he's prepared to spend five years living there. If he goes out for a walk, he'll be extradited to Sweden to answer rape accusations —after which he has no promise from Sweden to deny further extradition efforts to America, where a grand jury investigation into WikiLeaks awaits. This also means that London's Metropolitan Police have been devoting their resources to keeping tabs on Assange for a year. Yesterday, a spokesperson explained the updated costs of guarding the embassy over the phone: 'From July 2012 through May 2013, the full cost has been £3.8 million ($5,963,340),' he said. '£700,000 ($1,099,560) of which are additional, or overtime costs.' Julian has a treadmill, a SAD lamp, and a connection to the Internet, through which he's been publishing small leaks and conducting interviews. The indoor lifestyle has taken its toll on Julian, and it led to his contracting a chronic lung condition last fall."

Comments

Sweden is not, in fact, the US.

[Geoffrey.landis]

"Uninterested in facing U.S. justice..."

I do want to point out that Assange is not facing U.S. justice. What he is "uninterested in facing" is a return to Sweden to be questioned on rape charges.

He says that if he's sent to Sweden, Sweden will extradite him to the U.S.. There's no actual evidence for that, and no real reason to believe it.

Re:rat scurry

[Viol8]

Oh right, so now every liberals poster boy country - sweden - is an oppressive dictatorship is it? Funny how right-on liberal opinions can just do a 180 without even seeing the irony.

"it could certainly be argued that any paranoia he feels is justified."

No, it couldn't, not really. Not unless you're as paranoid as him. FWIW the UK is FAR more likely to extradite him to the USA than fluffy cuddly sweden. But they didn't.

Re:Can't they get him out

[Richard_at_work]

Which international law would that be? Ahh right, it wouldn't be because it doesn't actually exist.

Country A granting someone asylum does not obligate country B to do anything at all, including ignoring domestic law and allowing someone with a valid arrest warrant to leave the country. The ony place in which country A's asylum status means anything is in country A.

Re:seems like a waste of money

[K. S. Kyosuke]

his focus on Islam was because he's part of what is genuinely the far right and muslims are their current rallying cry just as Jews were in the 30s.

Except that most Jews around here are smart and quite nice (if a bit weird) people (with the exception of the orthodox ones, of course), whereas most Muslims are just plain wackos detached from this world's reality, believing in some of the most batshit crazy stuff I've ever heard.

Re:seems like a waste of money

[cc_pirate]

Yeah, that's why the far right voted for the PATRIOT Act in the US. Here's a hint, Fascism is not 'far left', it is 'far right'.