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Sweden drops Julian Assange rape investigation

bbc.co.uk

191–200 of 396 posts

Re: Sweden drops Julian Assange rape investigation

#191
post #39

Is there a good article -- does even anyone know? -- on how did Wikileaks turn from a whistleblower into a mouthpiece of the Kremlin? Edit: some examples: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/war_stories/... https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2017/03/...

You know, I harbour a lot of anti-American sentiment too (US government that is, the American people seem mostly fine) and I frequently speak up about it. Does that make me a Russian agent/mouthpiece/troll too?

Of course, comrade! From the left's point of view everyone is a Nazi, Fascist, Kremlin puppet. /s

Re: Sweden drops Julian Assange rape investigation

#192
post #189
post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? We're congratulating people who successfully skip bail now?

Didn't they setup fake accusations to destroy his reputation and make it easier to let the US imprison him? I thought this all was pretty obvious :/

"I thought this all was pretty obvious"

I don't know... it doesn't look like fake accusations to me. It was more like things that were there and US used for an entirely political reason, but the claim still seemed legit.

Also, it seems they dropped the charges due to a technicality: "Marianne Ny said his arrest warrant was being revoked as it was impossible to serve him notice of his alleged crimes"

Re: Sweden drops Julian Assange rape investigation

#193
post #189
post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? We're congratulating people who successfully skip bail now?

Didn't they setup fake accusations to destroy his reputation and make it easier to let the US imprison him? I thought this all was pretty obvious :/

The rape victim is still holding on to these "fake" accusations even after 7 years. Strange eh?

Re: Sweden drops Julian Assange rape investigation

#194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whether Swedens's reputation took a hit is a matter of opinion. If he was innocent why didn't he go back to Sweden and face the charges? All the stuff about the risk of US extraditing him in nonsense, they'd find it easier to do from the UK. All he did is use political asylum to avoid facing charges of a sexual assault.

"All he did is use political asylum to avoid facing charges of a sexual assault." All they did was use sexual assault charges in order to force him into political asylum.

He was quite happy to use the judicial system until it ruled against his case…

Re: Sweden drops Julian Assange rape investigation

#195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know, I harbour a lot of anti-American sentiment too (US government that is, the American people seem mostly fine) and I frequently speak up about it. Does that make me a Russian agent/mouthpiece/troll too?

Of course, comrade! From the left's point of view everyone is a Nazi, Fascist, Kremlin puppet. /s

But I am absolutely a 'lefty'.

Re: Sweden drops Julian Assange rape investigation

#196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(i)The case was very publicly reopened the week after it had been announced it was being dropped. I mean, it's not like headlines like this would have escaped Assange's notice http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/rape-investig... Assange spent 26 more days in the country and then flew out hours after his arrest warrant was signed. (ii) there's nothing particularly unusual about a more senior prosecutor over…

> ii) there's nothing particularly unusual about a more senior prosecutor overriding an earlier decision of a more junior prosecutor The prosecutor who dismissed the case was senior, and not junior in any sense of the word, rank or age. You say it's not unusual (in Sweden). I've never seen a single example of another rape case which was dismissed and reopened in this manner. Can you give a few examples of other re-op…

How many Swedish rape cases have you examined?

Because I have seen only one reopened, but I happen to know about exactly one, so I wouldn't presume to talk about it's irregularity.

Re: Sweden drops Julian Assange rape investigation

#197
post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As it has been explained many times: no, they couldn't have. Trial in absentia is not a universal feature of justice systems. Germany, for example, doesn't have it. Neither has Sweden.

Sweden most certainly has trial in absentia. It is up to the judge to decide if a case can be tried in the absense of the accused. Use google translate: http://lawline.se/answers/8630

Thank you, I had heard otherwise. Upvoted.

Re: Sweden drops Julian Assange rape investigation

#198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Strangely, the women's lawyers had a slightly different view of their desire to pursue the matter through the court than the Assange campaign to prevent the matter going to trial. It stretches credulity to argue that responsibility for the affair lies more with the "big powers" than the decision of two apparently major fans to report him to the police after comparing notes on his sexual behaviour. And suggesting the…

>Strangely, the women's lawyers had a slightly different view of their desire to pursue the matter through the court than the Assange campaign to prevent the matter going to trial. You mean the politician-lawyer Claes Borgstrom who was subsequently fired by the woman in question because he wasn't representing her and "he just wanted to be attached to a high profile case"? Yeah, nothing suspicious about that. >It stre…

> You mean the politician-lawyer Claes Borgstrom who was subsequently fired by the woman in question because he wasn't representing her and "he just wanted to be attached to a high profile case"? >Yeah, nothing suspicious about that

No. I mean Elizabeth Massi Fritz, the lawyer who is currently making statements on their behalf that it is "a scandal that a suspected rapist can avoid the judicial system and thus avoid a trial in court" and that despite the prosecutor's latest decision her client "can't change her view that Assange has exposed her to a rape", having frequently issued statements calling for a trial over the past few years.

The fact they sacked Borgstrom and hired someone else to continue to pursue the case against Assange actually undermines the Assangist theory that actually the whole thing was a conspiracy by the authorities that his accusers had no agency in.

Yes, it is entirely unhinged (or staggeringly ignorant of how legal systems work) to suggest that a case based entirely on apparently-reluctant witness testimony being reopened on appeal by a more senior prosecutor after an appeal from the hitherto-reluctant accusers' lawyer and interview with the suspect is more likely to be evidence of a conspiracy than a properly functioning legal system.

Re: Sweden drops Julian Assange rape investigation

#199
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I think you're being a tad literal there. The last case I remember was Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr who was kidnapped in Italy and brought to Egypt by the CIA in 2005. Italy's streets are not less intrinsically sacred than England's. I'm being literal on purpose. Look at the other replies to me; everyone talks about the CIA, yourself included, and ignores the fact that Italy was working hand-in-hand with the CIA: https…

Ok, so is it your contention that the UK would not co-operate in similar fashion? And, if so, why? Genuine sense of political autonomy or PR?

There was a massive scandal over UK complicity in US extraordinary rendition over here a few years ago.

The UK government was roundly condemned and the practice stopped (including refueling US rendition flights from elsewhere).

This will not happen to Assange.

Re: Sweden drops Julian Assange rape investigation

#200
post #175

I suppose the ball is now in the US' court . Assange is a strange case, hes (Wikileaks is) really a journalist, and should be protected by laws and conventions protecting journalists. But he doesn't seem to identify too strongly with the press and presents more like a political dissident. I used to live in Melbourne (where wikileaks is sort of based). I stopped to sign a petition in his support. The petition mentione…

When he still was just a journalist receiving and disseminating leaked information, I supported him. But after the Manning leaks, his power seems to have gone to his head, and he thought he could get away with anything. Journalists need to be protected from persecution for their work as journalism, but they don't get a free license to violate laws in completely unrelated cases. Rape is still rape. And his recent gran…

I don't feel as strongly as you do about the man himself, but he isn't my political cup of tea either. But, I think his persecution relates entirely to his work as a journalist IMO, regardless of how he sees it himself.

For that reason I support his freedom, even if I don't really care too much about his cause. The free press is important to me.

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