Live data from Hacker News

Julian Assange 'disappointed' as sex assault case dropped

bbc.com

71–80 of 173 posts

Re: Julian Assange 'disappointed' as sex assault case dropped

#71
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is fairly clear that there is an ongoing US investigation into Wikileaks and Assange. Whilst this is ongoing, there would be risk of US extradition requests were he to leave the embassy (to Sweden or elsewhere). His best strategy is therefore to stay in the embassy for now.

> His best strategy is therefore to stay in the embassy for now. Of course his best strategy is to avoid prosecution. That should mean we condemn him as a hypocrite, instead he has actual supporters blaming the victims!

The alleged victims are claiming no rape took place and that the police completely misinterpreted what they said, and later got railroaded by them.

The initial prosecutor dropped the charges, but another prosecutor with a political background and a radical stance on what should be considered rape appealed that decision and got herself appointed to the case. She then declined multiple requests to schedule another interview with Assange (both in-person and via phone/video conference, which Swedish law allows).

I don't understand how anyone could claim, with the facts we now know, that this case has any merit at all and is more than a politically motivated smear campaign.

Re: Julian Assange 'disappointed' as sex assault case dropped

#72
post #6

The Ecudardian embassy/Assange demanded from the Swedes that they agree to something that they legally cannot agree to before interviewing him. It's not really fair to blame the Swedish authorities for that.

You've meant to say: "Sweden said that Ecuador requested that ... while Ecuador said on it's website it didn't request this."

Re: Julian Assange 'disappointed' as sex assault case dropped

#73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ignorance and arrogance make a terrible combination. The reason he didn't travel to Sweden to just get it over with is because Sweden was planning to extradite him.

Yup they do so where is your evidence he was going to be extradited from Sweden to the US?

A few years ago, I would have said it was pure paranoia/conspiracy theory to suspect Sweden would extradite Assange.

However, look at what happened to Snowden, stuck at the Moscow airport, because no country in the world (bar Ecuador and Cuba, I think) was brave enough to take him (fearing US wrath). The pressure from the US was immense.

At some point a plane flying from Moscow to Ecuador (via Paris) was intercepted and forced to land in Vienna, because it was suspected that Snowden was on it. An out-in-your-face violation of international law.

So, it is now completely reasonable to assume that, if "asked", Sweden would extradite Assange to the US, where he is a wanted man.

Re: Julian Assange 'disappointed' as sex assault case dropped

#74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup they do so where is your evidence he was going to be extradited from Sweden to the US?

You need to read the UK High Court ruling. As is explained there, if Sweden had sufficient evidence to charge Assange in absentia they could do so and issue a European Arrest Warrant. The problem is that this would require the prosecution to demonstrate probable cause and proportionality to a public Swedish court: > Under Swedish law the issue of a domestic detention order in absentia was a precondition to the issue…

That explains a possible UK -> Sweden extradition, not a Sweden -> US extradition.

Re: Julian Assange 'disappointed' as sex assault case dropped

#75
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or the Swedish investigators could have come to London and questioned him. It's conspicuous that they didn't.

And they did when the time bar was about to approach. At that point Ecuador conveniently starts causing problems, quite why the Swedes would lie about Ecuador's demands when they could have just waited for the time bar to expire doesn't get explained. Prior to that they were dealing with an obstructive, bail jumping individual thumbing their nose at the legal systems of two countries (the UK and Sweden). Assange appe…

What you wanted to say: "Sweden claims Ecuador starts causing ... "

Re: Julian Assange 'disappointed' as sex assault case dropped

#79
"Those doubting the degree of ruthlessness Assange can expect should remember the forcing down of the Bolivian president's plane in 2013 - wrongly believed to be carrying Edward Snowden."

If you think of Sweden as ABBA, think again:

"In December 2010, The Independent revealed that the two governments had discussed his onward extradition to the US."

"The rendition and subsequent torture of two Egyptian political refugees in 2001 was condemned by the UN Committee against Torture, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch; the complicity and duplicity of the Swedish state are documented in successful civil litigation"

http://johnpilger.com/articles/assange-the-untold-story-of-a...

Re: Julian Assange 'disappointed' as sex assault case dropped

#80
"On the day Marianne Ny reactivated the case, the head of Sweden's military intelligence service - which has the acronym MUST -- publicly denounced WikiLeaks in an article entitled "WikiLeaks [is] a threat to our soldiers." Assange was warned that the Swedish intelligence service, SAPO, had been told by its US counterparts that US-Sweden intelligence-sharing arrangements would be "cut off" if Sweden sheltered him."

http://johnpilger.com/articles/assange-the-untold-story-of-a...

Post reply on HN