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Swedish court upholds Assange arrest warrant

reuters.com

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Re: Swedish court upholds Assange arrest warrant

#61

Post by Hitard »

SEMW wrote: post #46
Hitard wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Swedish police have had the option to interview Assange in London for three years, all expenses paid. They have chosen instead to temporize and delay, and thereby leave the investigation without closure. Note that the Swedish police have conducted foreign interviews in the past, but for some reason seem intent on drawing out this particular process.

They've asked to, multiple times. The Ecuadorian embassy won't let them. " Last month, Ecuador’s prosecutor-general rejected a previous request from the Swedish prosecutor to question Assange in London. That office, in a letter to Swedish authorities, said it will interview Assange and asked for a list of questions the Swedish prosecutor wants the Ecuadorian prosecutor to ask the Wikileaks founder. " ( http://www.the…

They have only asked once, and prior to that they left the offer open for two years. The Ecuadorian prosecutor has every right to intercede in the matter, especially if he is uncertain of the security situation. Interviews by proxy have also been used by Swedish authorities in the past.

Re: Swedish court upholds Assange arrest warrant

#62

Post by np422 »

welfare wrote: post #45
wallace_f wrote: post #6

This is not the first time Sweden has violated human dignity for the sake of helping out the US. One example: https://www.hrw.org/news/2006/11/09/sweden-violated-torture-...

Yeah, I'd rather focus on the victims of sexual assault than on the suspect trying to evade the law. What if it was your daughters/sisters/friends who were abused? Sweden is not a "banana republic" or whatever you're trying to imply here.

I'm a native Swedish citizen, Sweden is perhaps not a banana republic - but the number of pretty serious oversteps done by the Swedish government due to a mixture of incompetence and the will to please other powerful nations are to many to neglect.

Going on since the forced sterilization, German troop transports, extradition of baltic citizens to the soviet union and seizure of newspapers before publication in the days of the second world war .... continuing to today with the Da Costa case, the Egyptians kidnapped and sent to torture by the CIA with help of the Swedish government, the pediatrician accused of murder, the whole Thomas Quick embarrassment .... the list can be made rather long.

And there is obviously a great deal of pride and prestige put into this case by the attorney, who has not been exactly working their ass off to get the investigation going forward - even bending their own rules quite a bit with the obvious intention to inflict maximum discomfort to Julian Assange - and that makes me distrust their honesty and the entire basis for this case.

Re: Swedish court upholds Assange arrest warrant

#63

Post by mtgx »

assangesnowden wrote: post #52

You also have to understand the current political climate in Sweden. Assange's case is the ONLY rape that is disclosed/covered publicly. The 3000% increase in rapes due to immigration forced the government to ban the reporting on rapes to prevent racism. That also includes internet censorship, including foreign news sites.

That's crazy. And if it isn't political, they're surely making it hard to believe that this is the case.

Re: Swedish court upholds Assange arrest warrant

#64

Post by justsaysmthng »

willvarfar wrote: post #20
ent wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. Anyone can be accused of rape, accusations should not matter.

Accusations should be investigated by the justice system, not dismissed just because the person is famous. They should face those accusations by being interviewed by the persecutor, and if the prosecutor believes there is a case to answer, they should face those accusations in court.

Suppose that you're accused of a crime in North Korea and somehow you manage to escape the country.

Will you still respect what you said in the comment and return to NK to stand trial ?

Replace North Korea with Iran, Iraq, Syria or any other country known to be a corrupt or totalitarian state...

Aka at least half of all the countries in the world...

As a foreigner, you wouldn't trust the justice system in those countries and you would be right to try to avoid the trial.

So you see, the validity of what you said depends a lot on the context.

Even if the Swedish investigation and the trial is totally fair, it is not really the issue.

The issue is the extradition treaty with the US - Sweden will have to make a choice - Assange or good relations with the U.S.

And this is were the deadlock is. Go to Sweden and get unfairly convicted (low probability) or get extradited to the US and get life in prison (high probability). Or both.

Re: Swedish court upholds Assange arrest warrant

#65

Post by pjc50 »

Arnt wrote: post #49
willvarfar wrote: post #8

Someone accused of rape should not be given refuge to wait it out. Its easy for armchair conspiracists to imagine this whole thing an elaborate ruse to extradite Assange to the US, but Assange was being questioned in Sweden before he fled from there and on bail in the UK prior to 'fleeing' to the Ecuadorian embassy. It seems a very roundabout way for the Americans to get at him. Occams Razor Assange is fleeing justic…

Are you saying that rape should not have any statute of limitations, that extradition should work worldwide and unconditionally, both, or neither?

Many countries don't have statutes of limitations. The UK certainly doesn't have a statute of limitation on rape (recent celebrity controversies passim).

Re: Swedish court upholds Assange arrest warrant

#66

Post by PJDK »

assangesnowden wrote: post #52

You also have to understand the current political climate in Sweden. Assange's case is the ONLY rape that is disclosed/covered publicly. The 3000% increase in rapes due to immigration forced the government to ban the reporting on rapes to prevent racism. That also includes internet censorship, including foreign news sites.

Interesting, where's a good place to read up on this?

Re: Swedish court upholds Assange arrest warrant

#67

Post by eli »

mtgx wrote: post #56
willvarfar wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What extradition order? The Swedes have asked the UK to extradite him to Sweden. The US hasn't asked either the UK nor Sweden to extradite him to the US. Is there even a court case against him in the US? The extradition to the US seems to be Assange's own narrative. Why didn't the US reach out to get him on the streets of London?

The US gov has charges against Assange lined-up. They're just waiting for the opportunity to bring him in. http://www.mediaite.com/tv/assange-why-is-doj-wikileaks-inve...

I don't think that's true and your link doesn't support there even being any charges against him, let alone there being a plan to extradite.

Re: Swedish court upholds Assange arrest warrant

#68

Post by Arnt »

eli wrote: post #32
maglavaitss wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With your fancy words, you're missing the central point: everybody should be presumed innocent until proven otherwise.

By what process could his guilt possibly be provable if he refuses to leave the embassy?

Not relevant, because he doesn't.

He refuses to go anywhere that makes him extraditable to the US. The Swedish, in turn, say roughly "our general rules are such that we can't guarantee that, and an exception isn't practically possible". Which makes sense, it's arguably better to have plain and simple rules than ones that cover every last edge case.

Personally, I think the Swedish should bend their laws. Globalisation is proceeding, and I think there'll be more country-straddling cases in the next century than there were in the past century. If that assumption is correct, writing rules to cover stances like Assange's is more reasonable than it has been.

Re: Swedish court upholds Assange arrest warrant

#69

Post by SixSigma »

Maybe he should have contacted the American ambassador to Sweden, or maybe the US ambassador in the UK :

>Included in the leak was a list of high-profile donors from 2008 and the ambassadorship they received in exchange for their large donation to the DNC and Barack Obama’s Organizing For Action (OFA). Essentially, Obama was auctioning off foreign ambassador positions and other office positions while Hillary Clinton served as secretary of state. The largest donor listed at contributions totaling over $3.5 million, Matthew Barzun, served as U.S. Ambassador to Sweden from 2009 to 2011, served as President Obama’s National Finance Chair during his 2012 reelection campaign, and now serves as U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom.

Oh, I don't think that will help.

Re: Swedish court upholds Assange arrest warrant

#70

Post by eli »

onion2k wrote: post #42
willvarfar wrote: post #8

Someone accused of rape should not be given refuge to wait it out. Its easy for armchair conspiracists to imagine this whole thing an elaborate ruse to extradite Assange to the US, but Assange was being questioned in Sweden before he fled from there and on bail in the UK prior to 'fleeing' to the Ecuadorian embassy. It seems a very roundabout way for the Americans to get at him. Occams Razor Assange is fleeing justic…

You're absolutely right, Assange should face his accusers in court. That's obvious. The problem is that Sweden and the UK are complicit in America's desire to seize Assange and put him in prison without even the possibility of a fair trial, and the first step in that process is his extradition to the US from either the UK or Sweden. That is what's interfering with the case and what Assange is fleeing from, not the ra…

If Assange is facing charges in the US (and I don't think there's any evidence he is) then that's his problem. You don't get to avoid prosecution for a crime because it is politically or legally inconvenient for you.
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