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Time Runs Out On Sweden's Sexual Assault Charges Against Julian Assange
As the Guardian and many other sources report, the clock has run out on the three 2010 charges of sexual assault on which Swedish authorities had hoped try Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. Assange has been waiting out those charges since 2012 in London, inside the Ecuadorian embassy, claiming that he feared extradition to the U.S. in connection to this Wikileaks work if he were first extradicted to Sweden. He was recently rebuffed after suggesting that he'd be interested in living in France as a political refugee. The linked Guardian story notes that the expiry of the Swedish prosecutors' time doesn't mean that Assange is no longer under scrutiny, as does CNN.
The unique problem here is there exists a power that wants to bring him down.
Im sure its comfy in that embassy and youre just itchin to get out. Well let me tell you, the US has a lot more dirt than just a one night stand to throw at you, Assange. Remember that time you bought falafel and a soda and then accidentally dropped garlic sauce on the pavement? looks like someones getting a warrant for littering. And that other time, remember when you bumped into that old lithuanian woman on the train? thats a heck of an assault you perpetrated.
Good people go to bed earlier.
Yes and no. I mean, I don't really know much one way or the other. However, legal troubles aside, the level of effort involved in his case, and many of the facts about how its been conducted DO make it look quite politically motivated; which, regardless of his innocence or guilt, is reason to look at the entire affair with a pretty jaundiced eye.
He may well be guilty, but, I honestly don't think that is the real reason for the prosecution, people more guilty of worst crimes get far less scrutiny. I honestly wouldn't even be shocked to find out the women involved worked for intelligence services to begin with and the entire deal was a setup, its not like they don't have a name for using pretty young women as agents.
And thats the problem, his big major enemies have no credibility at all and nothing can be put past them, because of long standing patterns of decietful behavior of which, this would all be pretty minor examples.
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
I would also point out, that the fear of extradition to the US is a little baseless, he hasn't actually broken any US laws. If the US wanted to extradite him anyways, why work through Sweden which isn't a strong ally instead of the UK which is a Five Eyes partner and nearly the US's closest ally.
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
It was the timing. Right after the wikileaks, then the charges come up.
Governments use dirty tricks like this all the time. Obama wants to get hold of him, so they get Sweden to arrest him, then extradite him.
He was only wanted for questioning, yet for some reason England surrounded a embassy, and put 24/7 guards on it. When have they ever put so many resources into anybody else, simply because they wanted to question them?
do you know the story?
He is in charged of rape, because he didn't use a condom on a occasional sex. That is a crime in Sweden and is equivalent to rape. The girl don't even want any charge against him, but it is a public crime, so her opinion doesn't matter.
So this happen to thousand of people in Sweden and no charged are made... but he got charged and lot of work was put in to bring him to "justice"... why is he so special? Oh, right, he published things that powerful governments didn't like.
Ok, lets assume this is a valid charge... why do Swedish prosecutor don't agree to question him on another country or via the internet? Why they pressure so much for him to go to Sweden to be questioned. Assange didn't refuse to be questioned, he just want to do it out ot Sweden because he don't trust their motives. It is also known that the USA did pressure the Swedish government to arrest Assange... and a few months later, this charges show up.
So, he for sure is not perfect and for sure did much things that aren't right nor his ideas about women are all right... but this case is too uncommon and weird to blindly trust Swedish justice.
Higuita
The curious thing is the sticking point. Equador wanted one of their diplomats to be present at the interview, Sweden refused that condition...
You can see Marianne Ny, just didn't want to interview him in London in the Embassy. She only started the process in June because the court pressed her to act. It didn't matter what the issue was, she was never going to act in good faith.
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/mar/13/julian-assange-wikileaks-swedish-prosecutors-london-interview
"“My view has always been that to perform an interview with him at the Ecuadorian embassy in London would lower the quality of the interview, and that he would need to be present in Sweden in any case should there be a trial in the future. This assessment remains unchanged,” Ny said in a statement."
See, interview in London..... bad.... interview in Sweden..... good. The GPS location totally changes the questions and answers....
More to the point,
1) Someone surrendered under an EAW, in order to be extradited to a third state, requires the consent of both states taking part in the EAW request, rather than just one. Being extradited under an EAW only further complicates any attempts at third party extradition.
2) Sweden is one of the few countries whose extradition treaty with the US flatly bans extradition for military or intelligence crimes, and has a consequence long been a place to where defectors and spies flee (the most famous being Edward Lee Howard, the greatest CIA defector during the Cold War period)
3) Sweden was so mad at the US extradition program ignoring their ban on use of their airspace for extradition flights that they caused a diplomatic rift with the US in 2006 by disguising their special forces soldiers as airport workers to sneak aboard a suspected extradition plane. And how do we know about this event? Why, Wikileaks of course!
4) Sweden has the world's strongest whistleblower protections, so the point where it's not even legal to look for the source of a leak, let alone prosecute them for it.
5) While no country's judicial system is completely devoid of controversial cases (Sweden included), as a whole Sweden has one of the world's highest rankings on judicial fairness according to the peer-reviewed World Justice Project. They actually use it as an example of fairness when discussing how other countries can improve.
6) Assange himself thought so much of Sweden that he was applying for a residence permit there and repeatedly called Sweden his "shield". Funny how Sweden instantly became evil US lackeys the instant he was investigated for rape, isn't it?
I'll never forget the last thing grandma said to me before she died: "What are you doing in here with that knife?!?"
There was a time when you could take pride in your country, and think that "your" intelligence agencies were working for freedom.
That time is long past. Long, long past. Intelligence agencies are, simply, the enemies of decent people everywhere. Those who expose them do humanity a service, and those who join them are traitors to any concept of freedom.
"I would also point out, that the fear of extradition to the US is a little baseless, he hasn't actually broken any US laws".
I do hope that was meant as a joke. Surely there isn't anyone left who believes the US government gives a flying fuck about laws? The salient fact is that they hate Assange because he disobliged them and annoyed them. They certainly could create a new law specifically to make him illegal, or retroactively reinterpret some old laws to do the same... but history shows that they mostly just kidnap, torture and kill whomever they want, without any concern for laws.
In case you doubt any of that, ask yourself what laws the people in Guantanamo Bay broke. And then ask yourself, if they did break any American laws, why they weren't brought to trial in a US court of law. You might then graduate to asking yourself what US laws were broken by the thousands or millions of dead civilians in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen... etc., etc. to merit the summary capital punishment that was visited on them.
I am sure that there are many other solipsists out there.
"Does anyone actually care about this guy's legal troubles?"
Yes, like Socrates and Jesus Christ he got into trouble with the authorities for telling the truth in public and upsetting people. (Please don't twist that into any implication that Assange is as good a person generally as Socrates or Jesus Christ). And he is currently getting the same treatment. Certainly, he hasn't yet been crucified or made to drink poison. (Indeed, if he were ever to find his way to the good ol' USA I'm willing to bet he would soon be begging for some hemlock). Nor has he been sodomized with a bayonet like Colonel Qadafi, or hanged like Saddam Hussein. But that's not for want of trying.
What continues to amaze me is how eager many ordinary people are to see all those things done to someone whose main crime has been revealing the filthy tricks of their government, in the vain hope that this might help to moderate that government's appalling conduct. I suppose there will always be a lot of human beings who simply want to be led by someone who seems authoritative, which saves them the trouble and pain of thinking or standing up for themselves.
(Jesus got into trouble for consorting with publicans and sinners - more or less equivalent to government officials and prostitutes. Luckily for him he never consorted with Swedish women).
I am sure that there are many other solipsists out there.
I am pointing out that as these people are enemy combatants, and not criminals, asking what laws they broke is disingenuous, and trying to claim to KNOW that these people have done nothing wrong when most of the information is classified says either AC is lying, or he is breaking federal law.
If you want to fix it, protest it and elect leaders that vow to correct it. Oh wait, wasn't that one of Obama's promises? I think he said he would close Guantanamo Bay, but yet it is still open 6 years later. Interesting.
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
Yet Sweden refused to guarantee that he would not be extradited to the US. They have not officially charged him with anything. You know the charges are bogus. Retroactive rape accusations because he didn't wear a condom, which apparently they didn't realize he wasn't wearing at the time (were they using novocaine as lube)? Give me a break...
Don't pretend they can just show up and ask questions.
Obviously not, but firstly, Assange was in the UK since August 2010 when the case was already open, and he only entered the Ecuadorian embassy in June 2012. That makes nearly two years to question him in London without the complications to ask Ecuador for permission, and then they had three years to ask Ecuador for permission and only did so this year in June when the time for three of the allegations started to run out.
Multiple government officials here... including at least one who is currently running for president and another who was previously a vice-presidential nominee... have publicly called for Assange to be kidnapped and/or murdered. We have a recent history of "extraordinary rendition": ie. kidnapping people we don't like and sending them off to third-world crapholes to be tortured and murdered by the CIA so it doesn't technically happen on our own soil. And we operate our own modern gulag in Cuba, also so that technically holding people indefinitely with no trial or other due process isn't happening on our own soil.
I agree that he *shouldn't* have to be worried about being extradited to the US. But there are more shenanigans available than extradition.
Imagine all the people...