Julian Assange To Be Interviewed In London After All

mpawlo writes: The Swedish Director of Public Prosecution Ms Marianne Ny has submitted a request for legal assistance to the English authorities and a request to Ecuadorian authorities regarding permission to interview Julian Assange at Ecuador's embassy in London during June-July 2015. Back in 2010, a warrant was issued in Stockholm, Sweden for WikiLeaks founder and spokesman Julian Assange. Ever since, Assange has found refugee at the embassy of Ecuador in London.

Comments

Popping the popcorn

[TWX]

This is going to be interesting to watch. If I understand the nature of the criminal complaint, there's a class of sexual crime that does not exist in the UK that he stands accused of in Sweden, and that this whole mess is going to be a giant can of worms.

I wonder if there are any statutes of limitations in Sweden that the authorities, in a failure to interview someone that has been open to it on foreign soil, would run up against if they didn't interview him, which would basically void the ability to prosecute (and to seek extradition) if they don't take this step.

Re:Popping the popcorn

[Joce640k]

And let's not forget that she tweeted her friends next day to come and meet her cool new boyfriend.

She was clearly traumatized, right?

(Or maybe was it the police that made that 'trauma' decision for her - I mean she must be traumatized after that, right? She's such a sweet/innocent little CIA agent after all...)

Re:15 years in the embassy

[dbIII]

You've posted quite a lot on this topic so I'm curious about your views on a related one. What is so special about Assange that makes him so much worse than an actual convicted child rapist evading justice such as Roman Polanski? Why so much effort chasing one and not the other?
Such a vast difference in attention appears to indicate that the actual crime is not seen as important but getting revenge for the political embarrassment caused by Assange is.
Do you agree or have some different view?

Re:Finally they have seen the light

[Anonymous Coward]

Getting him from Sweden takes one unmarked CIA plane. Then there will be an official inquiry, some people will be told this is not the way things should be done, and that's the end of it. It's been done before.

Extradition from the UK may need to go past an actual judge. With Sweden presenting a rape case, that part is easily completed, and the UK can get him on the way to the US without anybody risking their political career.

If he had been a regular rapist, the UK wouldn't have been spending nearly that much on trying to prevent him from getting to Ecuador. Once he leaves, he'd no longer be their problem. But as it is, the GCHQ wants to see him in Gitmo just as much as their friends in the US.

Re:British are tired

[umghhh]

It is not extraordinary legal process - the interview in foreign land or by video link is part of European, European Arrest Warrant which wanted him extradited to Sweden on charges of lesser rape and coercion is also part of European law. The coercion charges expire this year due to statute of limitations leaving more serious but possibly more difficult to prove 'lesser rape' charge. So I guess UK authorities may be cutting costs of course but cutting the charge because it expired is maybe also an issue. In any case it is a correct decision - why wait if one can interview the guy and indict him instead of waiting. Not sure if that changes anything but at least it looks like public prosecutor is doing something.

Re:They could have done this years ago

[Joce640k]

There's people in Gitmo for wearing the wrong sort of watch:

http://www.theguardian.com/wor...

(clue: It's one of the most common watches in the world.)

And not just one person...there's a whole list!

http://en.wikialpha.org/wiki/L...

Team America, fuck yeah!