Tyche Shepherd

The latest news is Wikileak's Julian Assange has approached the Ecuadoran Embassy in London to seek asylum following the UK Supreme Courts rejection of his appeal against extradition to Sweden

BBC News - Wikileaks' Julian Assange seeks asylum in Ecuador embassy

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Void

That's not going to look good in the end.

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- These eyes can do more than see

Brenda Archer

Assange may or may not be a jerk 10 ways since Sunday, but I think what's being done to him is wrong. I hope he can get a fair hearing instead of a political show trial.

Void

people are capable of doing good things for shit reasons, shit things for good reasons, and any combination of the the above you can imagine... I refuse to take a stand without evidence.

That said, I agree it's rather suspicious all around given what we do know.

Chip Midnight

Nothing says "I'm innocent" like "Hide me!"

Innula Zenovka

Why do you think that he's unlikely to get a fair trial in Sweden?

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OrinB

Don't they want him for questioning regarding a non consensual sex case? Or is that another story i've got mixed it mixed up with as it's been going on for so long.

OrinB

So seeking asylum within an embassy chosen because it has little or no extradition treaty with the UK, Sweden or the EU is just as political an evasion as any probable trial.

He's scared of something... that's for sure!

Void

on the flip side, what else does one do when they are not protected from political maneuvering by their own country?

like I said, it's not going to look good in the end, but I can't honestly say whether the reasons are good or bad. It's definitely and act of desperation no matter how you slice it.

Cincia Singh

He has embarrassed governments world-wide ... what did he think would happen? Did he expect a parade? I don't know if he did what he's accused of but frankly if he had courage of his convictions he'd face down his accusers not hide in a 3rd world Embassy.

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Innula Zenovka

According to the BBC, reporting the remarks of Ecuador's Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino Read literally, that suggests he's worried about ending up back home in Australia at some point.

Whatever country he fears may extradite him, it seems to me a bit of a tenuous point. None of the EU countries, nor Australia as far as I know, will extradite to the USA on charges where the death penalty might be applied, without firm guarantees from the USA authorities that it won't be sought. And any attempt by the USA to extradite him from Sweden would have to go through both the Swedish and British courts (since it would require our permission, too, since he's being extradited from here).

detrius

Assange has been utterly paranoid for years, this really doesn't mean anything.

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Jahar Aabye

The other thing is that he probably has less to fear from American courts than from the Swedish courts. There's actually a history of jurisprudence in America that would protect what he did in terms of releasing information. Bradley Manning, if the charges against him are proven, is in deep shit. Assange might not be, and certainly it would be years of appeals and likely the Supreme Court would be involved.

And again, as you say, every capital case I've ever heard of involving extradition from the EU to USA has involved guarantees that the death penalty would not be sought.

As for whether the rape charges are political, I doubt it. The accusers were reportedly Wikileaks workers in Sweden. The original complaints were filed before the leaks really blew up. It is entirely possible that had Assange not been as high-profile an individual, that he might never have been caught and extradited simply because of the difficulty involved in those sort of international manhunts.

And seriously, Sweden doesn't strike me as being some lawless country that routinely violates its prisoners' human rights. Presumably as an EU nation they're party to a bunch of treaties on the treatment of criminal defendants, prisoners, etc.

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He pulled a Captain Ahab and Jaharpwn'ed her. - Trout

Wrong Weatherwax

Clearly you never heard what happened to poor Lisbeth Salander.

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Chip Midnight

Yeah, those Swedish prisons are barbaric I tell ya!

Arkady Arkright

Nothing says "I'm innocent" like a desire to not be put through a pre-judged show-trial to appease the military establishment of the world's one remaining 'super-power'.

Sweden is already investigating itself for complicity in 'extraordinary rendition', do you really think it's a safe place for him to go back to ?

America has a president who claims he's legally entitled to order the death of anyone, anywhere, anytime. Do you really think that is a safe place for Sweden to extradite him to ?

I'm ashamed of my country (Britain) for playing the American's game by saying he should be extradited on the basis of obviously trumped-up charges made by known and documented 'friends' of the CIA.

Ho-hum, that'll be me added to the 'No-fly' list, I expect...

Innula Zenovka

You've not seen the case papers, any more than have I, so I really don't see why you say the charges are "obviously trumped-up". That's not, if his or her remarks are correctly reported, how it appears (or appeared at the time) to
What bothers me is that the women's allegations, if true, appear to amount to rape in English law, and it would seem some of them do in Sweden, too (though no one seems too sure about how to translate sexuellt ofredande, which is one of the charges). Obviously they need thorough investigation, and if they were made against someone here in the UK, I wouldn't be at all surprised if the matter went to trial. I can certainly see the prosecution might have an uphill battle making the jury sure enough to convict, but it's -- rightly or wrongly -- public policy here that, in general, the more grave the charge, the greater the public interest in having a jury decide rather than having decisions taken administratively and, in sexual assault cases in particular, that the authorities be seen to be taking complaints seriously. I assume the Swedish authorities take a similar view.

So, all in all, if similar allegations were made against someone in the UK, and if he refused to attend for a second police interview, I wouldn't be surprised if he was arrested and charged (in fact, I'd be amazed if he wasn't). And if he'd left the jurisdiction for another EU state, I'd certainly hope we'd issue a European Arrest Warrant.

That leaves me with the question, should the fact Assange is a public figure give him any protection? I can see the defence might want to advance the theory that it's a put-up job by the CIA, supported by any evidence they might have. Similarly, if someone like Rush Limbaugh found himself facing this sort of allegation, he'd probably want to argue that the complainants had some kind of ulterior motive. And both might be right, but it's a question best left to the jury, to my mind.

Innula Zenovka

It's a treaty requirement -- Article 13 of the Extradition Agreement. Previously, the European Court of Human Rights had held, in Soering v United Kingdom, that both the risk of the death penalty being applied, and conditions on death row in Virginia, were a bar to extradition.

Ellie

After incidents like this http://http://rt.com/usa/news/us-ext...tudent-uk-493/
I don't see why Assange's concerns aren't justified. Many thought this type of thing wouldn't happen in the UK, so why not also in Sweden?

I seriously question the rape charges, wonder why any reasonably intelligent person like Assange would leave himself open to such accusations and ask myself if it's possible he would, at some stage, end up in a US court via some deal between Sweden and the US.

There's a lot more to this story we aren't hearing. Wikileaks?

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Tyche Shepherd

Sweden doesn't use a jury system except for defamation cases . Their criminal courts are closer to the UK Magistrate system with guilt or innocence being determined by a small panel of judges made up of professional judges and lay judges .

Ellie

Curious, I turned to Google and 5 mins later had read these articles- seeing a lot of vested interests and possibly a few dirty deals

http://http://www.theatlanticwire.co...pe-case/23192/
“The Person Really Behind the 'Smear Campaign' Says Michael Moynihan, something of a specialist when it comes to Swedish policy and media: "even a cursory look at the case would suggest that while it appears that Assange's name is being dragged through the mud, it isn't by the CIA" Writing at Reason, he has a few harsh words for conspiracy-theorist bloggers relying on Google Translate. For starters, he says, "if any of these sub literate bloggers knew anything about the kristen vänster ... they would probably have guessed that Assange's accuser was, as is common in Sweden, operating off of a very broad definition of rape and 'sexual molestation.'" Furthermore, "if any of these bozos did twenty minutes of research, they might," he continues, have found the blog of one of the alleged victims, Anna Ardin, whose radical feminism includes a post on "how one can exact 'legal revenge' on men who have been 'unfaithful.'" Given reports that Ardin "filed a complaint because Assange didn't wear a condom during sex," Moynihan thinks "the boring truth" likely is that "Assange didn't come up against a CIA conspiracy, but the rather broad Swedish conception of what constitutes a sexual crime."

http://http://www.crikey.com.au/2012...rime-politics/
Claimed offense one:
“On 13th-14th August 2010, in the home of the injured party [AA] in Stockholm, Assange, by using violence, forced the injured party to endure his restricting her freedom of movement. The violence consisted in a firm hold of the injured party’s arms and a forceful spreading of her legs while lying on top of her and with his body weight preventing her from moving or shifting.”

Plus

“The similar nature of the accusations in the Amnesty report and Ardin’s evidence (something that sites such as Swedenversusassange.com have earlier pointed to), is significant due to both the atrocious and corrupt and/or incompetent conduct of the investigation of Assange, and of the wider political context in which the accusations have been made.”

And

“..a police investigation characterised by an investigation begun peremptorily by an untrained prosecutor, dismissed the next day by a senior prosecutor, reinstated by a prosecutor known for advocating the expansion of the “s-x crimes” remit, following the involvement of former government ministers as legal counsel, the destruction and alternation of evidence by Anna Ardin, allegations of police coercion by the other complainant (Sofia Wilen), the close involvement of a police officer, Irmeli Krans, who was a political associate of Ardin’s in the initial investigation, her public commenting on the process (during prosecution), and a reprimand and investigation by the police board, and conflicting evidence of collusion between the complainants and others in subsequent witness statements to the police.”

http://http://www.guardian.co.uk/med...detention-rape
“WikiLeaks has angered the Pentagon by releasing thousands of classified US war reports from Afghanistan and Iraq.”

And there's always...

http://http://www.telegraph.co.uk/ne...ourt-told.html

And

http://http://www.telegraph.co.uk/ne...hief-weak.html

Ellie

Sry, double post due to weak wifi connection or the dudes outside in a unmarked van...

Arkady Arkright

ISTR that at least one of the complaining parties was shown to have done work for, and been paid by, the CIA in the past. Also, these offences were alleged to have been committed quite a while ago, but no attempt was made to investigate or bring charges until after the Wikileaks issue surfaced.

Walker

This just seems like a really ill-advised thing to do. The embassy would need to grant him Ecuadorian diplomatic status just to get him to Heathrow without being arrested. Surely he knew how unlikely that was? He had run out of options and considered anything worth a try, I suppose.

I hope all of the people who raised his quarter of a million pounds bail money were filthy rich because I understand there's a good chance they won't see it again.

Innula Zenovka

Has she? I've seen insinuations and allegations on the lines of but it's news to me that she's actually been shown to have done work for the CIA, let alone been paid for it. Where has this been "shown," and how much did she get paid, and when?

And, of course, the propositions "so-and-so has worked for the CIA" and "so-and-so was raped" are not necessarily mutually exclusive. I go back to my comparison with Rush Limbaugh; if he or someone like him was accused of similar misconduct, and if it were then shown that one of his accusers had some connections with a leftist organisation, or the Democrats, or whatever, and the authorities dropped the matter on the grounds that it would therefore be unsafe to proceed, people would quite rightly regard this as a monstrous state of affairs.

Eh? Not according to the BBC timeline. The events complained about allegedly took place in mid August 2010, and the first arrest warrant was issued on August 20th. It was all going on at the same time as Wikileaks.