Sweden drops Julian Assange rape investigation • Hacker News Board

Re: Sweden drops Julian Assange rape investigation

#301

Post by leogiertz » Fri, May 19, 2017, 3:49 PM UTC

k1m wrote: post #260

_fizz_buzz_ wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lol. Pretty standard to tell courts and investigators: "Hey, how about we meet at my place instead?" (on top of that at a place where the investigators don't have jurisdiction)

It actually is pretty standard. Sweden has done it in many other cases. As Wikileaks highlighted when this was made into an issue.

IANAL but it seems that Sweden has agreements with certain countries to enable questioning of someone who's not in the country. When it comes to EU states it's pretty straight forward.

One thing that would complicate this matter is that there doesn't seem to be an agreement between Ecuador and Sweden regarding this. Given that JA was under Ecuadorian jurisdiction it's entirely possible that this was one of the reasons why the prosecutor didn't go down that route initially.

Sources (sorry, can only find them in Swedish):

http://www.regeringen.se/sveriges-regering/justitiedeparteme...

Re: Sweden drops Julian Assange rape investigation

#302

Post by micheljones » Fri, May 19, 2017, 3:50 PM UTC

dullgiulio wrote: post #60

mootothemax wrote: post #16

Five years living in a single room, not able to leave or walk outside. Millions of pounds/dollars spent enforcing the same. A gigantic show of idiocy from both sides.

All he had to do was answer some questions to the Swedish prosecutor. I still fail to understand why Sweden, NOT a NATO member, would have been more dangerous than the UK. Also, Sweden is not exactly the worst place in the world to spend prison time (which was only the worst case scenario.) Answer the questions, clarify everything, and walk free. He chose himself not to answer. He chose to dump all the rich people wh…

And all they had to do was let him answer those questions. But they didn't let him until very recently. And soon after the interview they're dropping the charges.

I will help you with your failure to understand: the worst scenario was not 'some time in prison' but extradition to US and being murdered there. Assange is a citizen of British Commonwealth, and as such it would have been easier to get extradition through Sweden than through UK.

Re: Sweden drops Julian Assange rape investigation

#303

Post by martin_bech » Fri, May 19, 2017, 3:51 PM UTC

staffanj wrote: post #269

baldajan wrote: post #238

Reading the comments, many people seem unaware that Assange was indeed interviewed by Swedish prosecutors in London [1]. And before that, for years, Assange gave them that offer, but they refused time and time again (until they reluctantly accepted) [2]. As @belorn noted [3], the prosecutors had 3 options, and given it seems like they didn't have enough to make a case or a plan to continue the investigation, it had t…

>Reading the comments, many people seem unaware that Assange was indeed interviewed by Swedish prosecutors in London [1]. This is simply not true. The questions was asked by Ecuadorians and had to be approved beforehand. Swedish prosecutors where allowed in the room but could not talk to Assange. IE no follow up questions etc

Source?

Re: Sweden drops Julian Assange rape investigation

#304

Post by mihular » Fri, May 19, 2017, 3:51 PM UTC

youngtaff wrote: post #110

ageofwant wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was blindingly obvious that it was. Sweden's reputation took a huge hit because of this incident, and rightly so. They should have resolved the matter within 6 months. But it became such a hot potato that they were willing to sacrifice a man's live, and demonstrated to the world that principles and truth is inconsequential when the bully is sitting on your chest. The stench of this shit will cling to Sweden for ge…

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.

Gitmo was and is still full of innocent people. Just sayin.

Re: Sweden drops Julian Assange rape investigation

#305

Post by efraim » Fri, May 19, 2017, 3:52 PM UTC

vidarh wrote: post #281

efraim wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So Assange should get special treatment? On what grounds? He was accused of rape, what if they decided after the interview to arrest him, should they ask nicely that he come along with them?

> So Assange should get special treatment He is not the only person Swedish prosecutors or police will have interviewed in another country. During the extradition case, Swedish police sent investigators to Poland to interview two suspected murderers. > On what grounds? On the grounds that the alternative was to not be able interview him. On the grounds that it serves justice to attempt to investigate the case as far…

>During the extradition case, Swedish police sent investigators to Poland to interview two suspected murderers.

I'd like to read more about that, do you have a link?

Why even have European arrest orders when prosecutors and police are expected to travel to wherever the suspect are? It makes no sense at all, Assange was wanted for questioning, the British courts asked the British police to extradite him to Sweden, but he fled to Ecuador. Where's the justice for the alleged victims in that? Why wasn't Assange afraid of being extradited from Britain to the US while the extradition case was ongoing? Because it's a made up excuse to avoid being prosecuted for rape.

Re: Sweden drops Julian Assange rape investigation

#306

Post by efraim » Fri, May 19, 2017, 3:54 PM UTC

nailer wrote: post #284

efraim wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you read your link? Ecuador was the one that shut him out and the questions were asked by a prosecutor from Ecuador. >The questions were prepared by prosecutors in Sweden, where an arrest warrant for Mr. Assange was issued in 2010, but were posed by a prosecutor from Ecuador under an agreement the two countries made in August. >“For some reason that I am not aware of, I am not on the list of approved persons that…

Amended.

The Swedish prosecutor has said that they hoped to get a sample of Assange's DNA during the interview, but since it was carried out by a prosecutor from Ecuador that seems unlikely and I haven't seen anything about them getting it.

Re: Sweden drops Julian Assange rape investigation

#307

Post by k1m » Fri, May 19, 2017, 3:55 PM UTC

burkaman wrote: post #298

k1m wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your original comment made it sound like they had no input in the questions being put to Assange. Merely "present" to observe Ecuador. This article suggests Sweden was involved and I don't see anything suggesting the procedure (under "an agreement the two countries made") was problematic. Who asks the questions seems to just be a technicality here.

"Isgren is allowed to ask Assange to clarify his answers, but not to put additional questions, and will receive a written transcript of the exchanges from Ecuador after the interview has concluded." - https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/nov/14/julian-assange... This is problematic.

Problematic for whom? You seem more concerned about this than the Swedish prosecutors. It seems this was the procedure they agreed to. Whether it's normal or not I don't know. But they haven't made a fuss about it. And I think they would have if it was a big concern.

Re: Sweden drops Julian Assange rape investigation

#308

Post by jbmorgado » Fri, May 19, 2017, 3:56 PM UTC

Kiro wrote: post #218

throw2016 wrote: post #215

The hypocrisy is stunning. Chinese or Russian governments harassing whistle blowers and leakers on this scale would be met by a frenzy of hysterical global condemnation by the media, human rights orgs, governments and citizens with their domestic courts systems summarily dismissed and pay a price in global reputation and even sanctions. Yet here we have Snowden and Assange being harassed brazenly for years with littl…

> How have Swedish and UK citizens, [...] helped Snowden or Assange in any meaningful way in all these years? Well, since I believe he's guilty of rape I have no interest in helping him.

You "believe".

I wonder how that comment would work on any other discussion on HN. You know, those ones where you are actually supposed to be rational instead of just going around with virtue signalling.

It is quite telling of the general lack of coherence about social matters in HN when in all cases of supposed sexual harassment against woman, there is a PC crowd in HN that just goes around spreading and enforcing (trough voting) the moto of "guilty until proven innocent", even in cases obviously so blatantly manipulated for political reasons as this.

Re: Sweden drops Julian Assange rape investigation

#309

Post by gribbly » Fri, May 19, 2017, 4:06 PM UTC

iddqd wrote: post #193

k__ wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Who knows, the accuser, Anna Ardin left Sweden for Israel shortly after making the accusations and has not made a single comment since then as far as I know.

Re: Sweden drops Julian Assange rape investigation

#310

Post by ttctciyf » Fri, May 19, 2017, 4:16 PM UTC

abritinthebay wrote: post #283

ttctciyf wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the best indication that's emerged is in Comey's recent testimony[1] > before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Comey was asked why the United States had not charged WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange with a crime. Comey said he had to be careful with his answer, because he did not want to confirm whether there were charges pending against Assange, but then responded: “He hasn't been apprehended because he is ins…

Which, as evidence to that goes, isn't any. Comey can't comment on classified or open cases (which Assange would be because, duh, WikiLeaks) just procedural things. Which that was. It says nothing other than they have an investigation- well we knew that.

> It says nothing other than they have an investigation- well we knew that.

To me, the words “he hasn't been apprehended because he is inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London" strongly imply, in context, that the US has an intention to "apprehend" Assange.