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Sweden Drops Julian Assange Rape Investigation

bbc.com

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Re: Sweden Drops Julian Assange Rape Investigation

#211

Post by P_I_Staker »

syshum wrote: post #144
P_I_Staker wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Okay, but then any criminal on the lamb is being tortured? If someone jumps bail, we should just leave them alone, so we don't traumatize then? All criminals are being tortured (these same things happen in prison). I don't agree with how all this was handled, but I think we're being a bit rediculous here.

>> All criminals are being tortured (these same things happen in prison) If you are talking about US Prisions then there is a Good Case to be made that is true. The Treatment of Prisioners in the US is abhorrent

I actually agree. I wouldn't be so sure this is just an American thing though. I wasn't happy to see my country on locked up abroad; but so is France.

Re: Sweden Drops Julian Assange Rape Investigation

#212

Post by mariorossi666 »

femiagbabiaka wrote: post #178
Bostonian wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chelsea Manning was sentenced to 35 years, but her sentence was commuted by Obama in part because she was transgender. She deserves to be in prison. https://www.cnn.com/2017/01/17/politics/chelsea-manning-sent... President Barack Obama on Tuesday overruled his secretary of defense to commute the sentence of former Army soldier Chelsea Manning, who was convicted of stealing and disseminating 750,000 pages of documents…

Whistleblowers do not deserve to be in prison. Exposing war crimes is good.

She wasn't technically a whistleblower, technically she stole classified documents and betrayed her country that she swore to protect.

The military have a different way of dealing with justice, especially in U.S.

She was in fact sentenced by court-martial not by a regular court.

Re: Sweden Drops Julian Assange Rape Investigation

#213

Post by AndrewBissell »

duxup wrote: post #174
maze-le wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"free country"... oxymoron of the century by now...

What would you define a "free country" as?

Among other things, one would certainly have to exclude any country which engages in the mass collection and permanent storage of all of its citizens' communications.

Re: Sweden Drops Julian Assange Rape Investigation

#214

Post by goerz »

entropea wrote: post #200
goerz wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Mr. Assange’s health has been seriously affected by the extremely hostile and arbitrary environment he has been exposed to for many years Let me correct that: Mr Assange’s health has been seriously affected by the environment that he exposed himself to (Edit: I’m talking about the embassy episode here, not his more recent incarceration)

>he exposed himself to Did you miss what happened to him when he was arrested? He's now being tortured even more. He put himself there, for his safety, and to think he did it 'just because' is wildly ridiculous.

No, and I do in fact think his most recent incarceration at least borders on torture. But I also think claiming that someone is torturing you while you’ve locked yourself in a room trying to evade questioning in a criminal investigation is ridiculous.

Re: Sweden Drops Julian Assange Rape Investigation

#215

Post by colejohnson66 »

jimbokun wrote: post #172
colejohnson66 wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, the old “he was free to leave anytime” argument. No. He wasn’t. Yes, technically, he was free to leave, but arguing that is ignoring the fact that leaving would mean jail. It’s victim blaming. Would you say a victim of Stockholm Syndrome is “free to leave at any time”? No, because that’s a ridiculous argument. Would you say Snowden is “free to leave [Russia] at any time”? No! So why is it an acceptable argument w…

"Yes, technically, he was free to leave, but arguing that is ignoring the fact that leaving would mean jail." Didn't it mean he would be free to stand trial for the rape allegations? Do those women not have a right to have their case heard?

They do. He should stand trial for that. However, I’m talking about the US case where he is being charged with espionage. In other words: exposing the US government’s illegal doings. He should not have to stand trial for that.

Re: Sweden Drops Julian Assange Rape Investigation

#216

Post by Jamwinner »

injb wrote: post #15
ivl wrote: post #2

> "The reason for this decision is that the evidence has weakened considerably due to the long period of time that has elapsed since the events in question." I'm not sure I understand what's meant by this. Did the victims testimony change? How does evidence weaken over time?

He's now safely in police custody and the US has already revealed its plans to extradite him, so there's no longer any need for the charges in Sweden. That's what's meant by this, imo.

Or they never had any strong charges to begin with and the whole plan was to hand over Assange to the US, just Assange said.

This is a copy of a dead comment. Not mine.

Re: Sweden Drops Julian Assange Rape Investigation

#217

Post by mariorossi666 »

Miner49er wrote: post #165
isostatic wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sweden doesn't have a death penalty. If it did, UK law would not allow extradition to Sweden.

I'm not talking about Sweden. The charges in Sweden never mattered besides being a way for him to be extradited to the U.S. The U.S. does have the death penalty, and it would be on the table if the U.S. didn't tell the U.K. he won't get it. It's still possible that the U.S. lied of course. Either way, he'll likely be put in prison in the U.S. for the rest of his life.

> I'm not talking about Sweden. The charges in Sweden never mattered besides being a way for him to be extradited to the U.S.

Citation needed.

The fact that Swedes are being honest here, doesn't prove anything.

Re: Sweden Drops Julian Assange Rape Investigation

#218

Post by [deleted] »

duxup wrote: post #187
andy_ppp wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What makes you think making up charges and constantly threatening to destroy you are not extremely stressful. He has a family too that he's been unable to see properly for a long while. Is his only current crime skipping bail on charges he believed were fake? Clearly, facing deportation to the US is problematic for a number of reasons, mostly that it's impossible for even Snowden to get a fair trial there, let alone…

"are not extremely stressful." That's not torture.

[deleted]

Re: Sweden Drops Julian Assange Rape Investigation

#219

Post by dependenttypes »

Roark66 wrote: post #46
djsumdog wrote: post #9

So he still gets almost another full year in a UK jail. After that, where can he go? Let's just say he's somehow successful at avoiding US extradition (unlikely), he's not going to be able to stay in the UK (unless he has dual citizenship or can somehow claim dual citizenship through a relative). He'd have to request asylum from another European nation that he can safety get to without flying. Australia did little to…

If he is released from UK jail he can hop onto a ferry and go to mainland EU. There he could travel to anywhere within the Shengen zone. I'm not sure about western countries, but Poland(as well as other eastern countries I believe) will not extradite anyone anywhere unless the crime is also considered a crime here, there is no possibility of death penalty, and there is strong evidence submitted that makes a convictio…

The Kickass Torrents founder was arrested in Poland. There is also this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_site

Re: Sweden Drops Julian Assange Rape Investigation

#220

Post by klagermkii »

solipsism wrote: post #101
colejohnson66 wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, the old “he was free to leave anytime” argument. No. He wasn’t. Yes, technically, he was free to leave, but arguing that is ignoring the fact that leaving would mean jail. It’s victim blaming. Would you say a victim of Stockholm Syndrome is “free to leave at any time”? No, because that’s a ridiculous argument. Would you say Snowden is “free to leave [Russia] at any time”? No! So why is it an acceptable argument w…

Either there's a rule of law or there's not. You can't hide from the police and then claim that the very act of hiding is an act of torture enacted on you by the police.

The "rule of law" isn't about individual citizens submitting to the system.

It's about the people in power following a standardised process based on the crime that was supposedly committed, and being applied uniformly, vs the "rule of man" where things are handled on an adhoc manner based on who's in power and who's being charged.

The system can be breaching the "rule of law", not the individuals targeted by that system.

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