Sweden Drops Julian Assange Rape Investigation • Hacker News Board

Re: Sweden Drops Julian Assange Rape Investigation

#331

Post by undecisive » Tue, Nov 19, 2019, 3:55 PM UTC

duxup wrote: post #134

k1m wrote: post #35

Worth mentioning that Nils Melzer, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, visited Assange and described his treatment as psychological torture: > “It was obvious that Mr. Assange’s health has been seriously affected by the extremely hostile and arbitrary environment he has been exposed to for many years,” the expert said. “Most importantly, in addition to physical ailments, Mr. Assange showed all symptoms typical for…

I find the idea of the threat of prosecution in a free country as a form of "torture" a bit questionable. It's something, but i'm not sure I agree with calling that torture.

It occurs to me that "land of the free" can be taken two possible ways:

- "the field of the sheep" - the field only contains sheep

- "the wool of the sheep" - the wool only belongs to the sheep, not the cows, pigs, goats etc.

In the same way, America belongs to some very free people, and the rest are conned into touting that from under whatever thumb they happen to be.

Re: Sweden Drops Julian Assange Rape Investigation

#332

Post by hombre_fatal » Tue, Nov 19, 2019, 3:55 PM UTC

rezmason wrote: post #281

freejulian85 wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He doesn’t deserve a better response. People who don’t support Assange can get fucked.

[flagged]

Every source I can find on google shows clearly that they aren't new to the Trump administration, though often more populated than they were under the Obama administration.

But they all defeat the causal relationship you asserted in your comment.

https://www.newsweek.com/migrant-detention-centers-trump-oba...

Re: Sweden Drops Julian Assange Rape Investigation

#333

Post by monocasa » Tue, Nov 19, 2019, 3:55 PM UTC

mariorossi666 wrote: post #212

femiagbabiaka wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

How did she betray her country? During her trial, the prosecution couldn't actually point to any direct harm.

Re: Sweden Drops Julian Assange Rape Investigation

#334

Post by vidarh » Tue, Nov 19, 2019, 3:55 PM UTC

geofft wrote: post #60

lettergram wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I recall the evidence was always pretty weak. I don’t have time to find the news article from back then, but it was “sexual assault” because he didn’t wear a condom and at the time the woman (perhaps plural) didn’t want to really participate. Could be wrong though... Does anyone have some news from back then?

The charge was always pretty consistent as "sexual assault" as you described, yes, with "rape" having a specific definition in Swedish law. https://www.theguardian.com/media/2010/dec/17/julian-assange... It sounds like the women didn't really want to pursue the case (which is not at all uncommon in sexual assault cases!), they just wanted to track down Assange and make him take an STD test after he had unprotected se…

Personally I think Assange may well genuinely have believed it was US involvement - rape sentences in Sweden are short and lenient enough that evading charges for years makes no sense unless he was scared of something else. But of course that does not tell us anything about whether or not he was right.

At the same time I suspect the oddities in how the case was pursued is more likely to simply have been about domestic Swedish politics - both the prosecutor and one of the lawyers involved are known to have favoured a stricter handling of rape cases, and it's plausible they saw Assange as someone getting away with something they wanted to make an example of.

So he may well have been genuinely worried for all the wrong reasons.

Of course this is just a hypothesis.

Re: Sweden Drops Julian Assange Rape Investigation

#335

Post by mtgx » Tue, Nov 19, 2019, 3:55 PM UTC

pcroh wrote: post #321

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…

Skipping bail on charges he believe were fake is a crime, yes. If we was so sure of the charges being fake then he should have let them judge him.

He didn't fear the charges, he feared the extradition - and that's exactly what happened - Sweden dropped the charges anyway, but he ended-up being extradited.

Re: Sweden Drops Julian Assange Rape Investigation

#336

Post by counterpig » Tue, Nov 19, 2019, 3:55 PM UTC

ckastner wrote: post #318

k1m wrote: post #35

Worth mentioning that Nils Melzer, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, visited Assange and described his treatment as psychological torture: > “It was obvious that Mr. Assange’s health has been seriously affected by the extremely hostile and arbitrary environment he has been exposed to for many years,” the expert said. “Most importantly, in addition to physical ailments, Mr. Assange showed all symptoms typical for…

You quote: > “Mr. Assange has been deliberately exposed, for a period of several years, to progressively severe forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, the cumulative effects of which can only be described as psychological torture.“ That quote lacked information on who was exposing him and what that exposure actually was, so I followed your source. That source elaborates as follows: > “In the co…

The charges from Sweden have been dropped and bought several times depending on their usefulness to the Americans it is not a case of the system working as intended.

It is a foreign power putting diplomatic pressure on the Swedish government to put pressure on a man who has embarrassed them.

Re: Sweden Drops Julian Assange Rape Investigation

#337

Post by mariorossi666 » Tue, Nov 19, 2019, 3:56 PM UTC

colejohnson66 wrote: post #262

mariorossi666 wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They're accusing him under a law that would not allow him to present any motive for what he did Yeah, rape doesn't need motive.

Please don’t do that here. We’re not talking about rape. We’re talking about the espionage accusations.

I thought the news was about Sweden dropping the case of rape.

Re: Sweden Drops Julian Assange Rape Investigation

#338

Post by BigJ1211 » Tue, Nov 19, 2019, 3:56 PM UTC

happytoexplain wrote: post #177

BigJ1211 wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we go by that definition then everytime your partner is horny and you're not, but you have sex with them regardless you're "sexually assaulted". As you didn't really want to participate.

True, but I think the parent's absolutism is closer to reality than your absolutism. I.e. it's essentially a pointless semantic argument - "didn't really want to" doesn't have enough context to decide in either direction.

I agree with you there, my point was that his definition is highly fallible and easily abused. And I was attempting to point that out with an example.

It might seem pointlessly semantic, but I think it's important with issues such as sexual assault and rape. Especially considering the people on either side of this likely have their lives ruined.

Re: Sweden Drops Julian Assange Rape Investigation

#339

Post by DiogenesKynikos » Tue, Nov 19, 2019, 3:56 PM UTC

matthewdgreen wrote: post #204

DiogenesKynikos wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> His "freedom of movement" is self-restricted by his fear that he will have to face justice for acting as an agent of Russian military intelligence to attack America including laundering Russian intelligence into America to upset elections. Let's assume for a moment that your premise is true, and Assange got the DNC documents from Russian intelligence. Should he have buried the documents? He had in his possession do…

>Let's assume for a moment that your premise is true, and Assange got the DNC documents from Russian intelligence. Should he have buried the documents? The idea that Wikileaks took a non-partisan, journalistic attitude towards these leaks is a fantasy. He repeatedly contacted the Trump campaign and told them that he had "damaging leaks" on the way, and made it clear in internal chats that he wanted to use Wikileaks t…

Journalists aren't required to be non-partisan. You don't seriously believe that journalists working at the NY Times or Washington Post are non-partisan, do you?

What matters is whether the information Assange published was true and in the public interest. Do you believe that it would have been better for Assange to cover up for the DNC and Hillary Clinton and decide not to publish their dirty laundry?

Re: Sweden Drops Julian Assange Rape Investigation

#340

Post by DubiousPusher » Tue, Nov 19, 2019, 3:57 PM UTC

ckastner wrote: post #318

k1m wrote: post #35

Worth mentioning that Nils Melzer, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, visited Assange and described his treatment as psychological torture: > “It was obvious that Mr. Assange’s health has been seriously affected by the extremely hostile and arbitrary environment he has been exposed to for many years,” the expert said. “Most importantly, in addition to physical ailments, Mr. Assange showed all symptoms typical for…

You quote: > “Mr. Assange has been deliberately exposed, for a period of several years, to progressively severe forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, the cumulative effects of which can only be described as psychological torture.“ That quote lacked information on who was exposing him and what that exposure actually was, so I followed your source. That source elaborates as follows: > “In the co…

If she finds his treatment report worthy she should visit almost any county jail in America and write a report. I'm seriously not being flippant. If people genuinely find this kind of treatment disturbing and inhumane then they should know it is befalling daily many of their over 2 million incarcerated American brothers and sisters.