4 ms·

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-violate

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-ban-cia-rendition https://www.hrw.org/news/2006/11/09/sweden-violated-torture-...

rightnow 10y ago
What about the dignity of the two girls? They're not worth anything?
- sgift 10y ago
  If the prosecution values their dignity so much it is free to do the interview per video or by going to London and finish this thing. The options are there, they just have to use them.
  - notahacker 10y ago
    How do they "finish the thing" by being unable to complete the arrest because he's sitting on foreign territory? Particularly when the Ecuadorean embassy keeps throwing curve balls by blocking requests and insisting on asking the questions themselves.
    - k1m 10y ago
      By going to him, which they have been happy to do in many other cases, and have finally agreed to do in this case after the UN criticised the way they have treated him.
      - notahacker 10y ago
        Do you honestly believe both that there will be no further objections by Ecuadorian embassy staff and that Assange will agree to walk out of the embassy after the questions are asked and Sweden is allowed to charge him on October 17th? If not, how can you possibly claim that Sweden have been offered an opportunity to "finish it"?
  - gambiting 10y ago
    Or try him in absentia. But clearly, they don't care enough.
- nicky0 10y ago
  They were 26 and 31 years old. Women, not girls.
- Nokinside 10y ago
  Dignity of the two girls is not involved because they did not report being raped or molested despite what the news say. Ms. Ardin hosted Assange six days after the alleged incident and threw party for him. Ms. Wilen and Assange separated in good mood afterwards and had breakfast together. They went to police in order to persuade him to be tested for sexually transmitted diseases and after the police said they cold not do such thing they basically asked the police "if they could have been raped or molested" without never reporting rape or molestation. In the prosecutors report girls describe sex as unpleasant and that they did not like it. Under Swedish law police and the prosecution are required to register and prosecute all possible rape offenses of which they become aware. Prosecutors even dropped the case once. As far as I understand, this is just procedural limbo. Swedish prosecutors are required to continue with hearing and Assange is freaked out of his mind because the case is so absurd. I don't agree with those who claim that Swedish rape laws are bad, but I think they are very different from other countries. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_statistics#/media/File:Rape_rate_per_100,000_-_country_comparison_-_United_Nations_2012.png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_statistics#/media/File:Ra...
  - wallace_f 10y ago
    This comment should really be further towards the top to make it more visible. Unfortunately, due to the media people now associate Assange with "rape." I grew up thinking rape meant something completely different than whatever happened here, be it, at the worst, what sounds like unpleasant and regrettable consensual sex.
- wallace_f 10y ago
  Of course is matters but as others have already commented the case against Assange is very fishy smelling.
welfare 10y ago
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.
- np422 10y ago
  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.
- wallace_f 10y ago
  Have you read the case against Assange? It's very, very fishy. At the very worst, this is not a case of rape in the traditional definition of the word. At worst, it is a modern interpretation as what qualifies as rape, as in "I invited him to sleep with me and stay at my apartment, and we were sleeping together for a week, but then a few weeks after we had sex I later regretted it."

rightnow 10y ago

What about the dignity of the two girls? They're not worth anything?

sgift 10y ago
If the prosecution values their dignity so much it is free to do the interview per video or by going to London and finish this thing. The options are there, they just have to use them.
- notahacker 10y ago
  How do they "finish the thing" by being unable to complete the arrest because he's sitting on foreign territory? Particularly when the Ecuadorean embassy keeps throwing curve balls by blocking requests and insisting on asking the questions themselves.
  - k1m 10y ago
    By going to him, which they have been happy to do in many other cases, and have finally agreed to do in this case after the UN criticised the way they have treated him.
    - notahacker 10y ago
      Do you honestly believe both that there will be no further objections by Ecuadorian embassy staff and that Assange will agree to walk out of the embassy after the questions are asked and Sweden is allowed to charge him on October 17th? If not, how can you possibly claim that Sweden have been offered an opportunity to "finish it"?
- gambiting 10y ago
  Or try him in absentia. But clearly, they don't care enough.
nicky0 10y ago
They were 26 and 31 years old. Women, not girls.
Nokinside 10y ago
Dignity of the two girls is not involved because they did not report being raped or molested despite what the news say. Ms. Ardin hosted Assange six days after the alleged incident and threw party for him. Ms. Wilen and Assange separated in good mood afterwards and had breakfast together. They went to police in order to persuade him to be tested for sexually transmitted diseases and after the police said they cold not do such thing they basically asked the police "if they could have been raped or molested" without never reporting rape or molestation. In the prosecutors report girls describe sex as unpleasant and that they did not like it. Under Swedish law police and the prosecution are required to register and prosecute all possible rape offenses of which they become aware. Prosecutors even dropped the case once. As far as I understand, this is just procedural limbo. Swedish prosecutors are required to continue with hearing and Assange is freaked out of his mind because the case is so absurd. I don't agree with those who claim that Swedish rape laws are bad, but I think they are very different from other countries. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_statistics#/media/File:Rape_rate_per_100,000_-_country_comparison_-_United_Nations_2012.png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_statistics#/media/File:Ra...
- wallace_f 10y ago
  This comment should really be further towards the top to make it more visible. Unfortunately, due to the media people now associate Assange with "rape." I grew up thinking rape meant something completely different than whatever happened here, be it, at the worst, what sounds like unpleasant and regrettable consensual sex.
wallace_f 10y ago
Of course is matters but as others have already commented the case against Assange is very fishy smelling.

welfare 10y ago

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.

np422 10y ago
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.
wallace_f 10y ago
Have you read the case against Assange? It's very, very fishy. At the very worst, this is not a case of rape in the traditional definition of the word. At worst, it is a modern interpretation as what qualifies as rape, as in "I invited him to sleep with me and stay at my apartment, and we were sleeping together for a week, but then a few weeks after we had sex I later regretted it."