10 ms·
From a Swedish perspective the Julian Assange case is particular close to the heart since it really shows how corrupt even our courts and politicians are. Swede
by staticelf 10y ago
From a Swedish perspective the Julian Assange case is particular close to the heart since it really shows how corrupt even our courts and politicians are. Sweden is rated as one of the countries with the lowest corruption but still 6 years have passed without even interviewing him for the pathetic accusations.
The entire case is a joke and whatever the US-election result is, it's bad for the entire world since our corrupt politicians will do whatever American corrupt politicians say.
- rimantas 10y agoHow do you suggest Sweden should interview him? Attack an embassy?
- jacquesm 10y agoJust go visit. He already agreed that it would be ok long ago.
- dagw 10y agoIt's not that simple. They had to find a procedure that is acceptable to Swedish, Ecuadorian and British courts. These negotiations have only recently been completed and a meeting has tentatively been booked for the end of October.
- jacquesm 10y agoYes, I'm sure that there was no way this could have been done faster and that the statue of limitations in Sweden running out had nothing to do with it. /s
- dagw 10y agoSure it could have been done faster, but that doesn't mean the necessary legal negotiations where trivial.
- jacquesm 10y agoIt doesn't mean they had to take years either.
- icebraining 10y agoIn my (Western European!) country, a women was just arrested after being convicted in 2000. I don't know the Swedish legal system, but it doesn't surprise me that such a thorny issue takes a long time.
- foldr 10y ago>the statue of limitations in Sweden running out had nothing to do with it. /s The rape allegations won't be past the limit until 2020.
- jacquesm 10y agohttp://www.wsj.com/articles/sweden-runs-out-of-time-on-parts-of-assange-probe-1439467129 http://www.wsj.com/articles/sweden-runs-out-of-time-on-parts...
- staffanj 10y agoLast time I heard (about 2-3 months ago) the Ecuadorians had accepted that the swedish prosecutors were present when the hearing took place. They should not be allowed to ask any questions. Questions had to be sent in first and asked by the Ecuadorians. I dont think its that simple as "Just go there and have the hearing".
- wnoise 10y agoWait, why do the British courts care?
- Iv 10y agoHe went ever further than that. He proposed to go to Sweden if he could be provided with a document promising he would not get deported to US. It was refused.
- foldr 10y agoIt's an absurd request. No country could issue such a document. For one thing, it would establish a precedent that the government could arbitrarily decide to overall any future decisions of the judiciary. For another, it would probably violate Sweden's treaty obligations.
- tptacek 10y agoHe has in fact more protections against extradition in Sweden than he does in the UK, both because the UK has a friendlier bilateral extradition agreement with the US and because the ECHR would require the consent of both the UK and Sweden at this point for him to be extradited.
- hbosch 10y agoDoesn't being in the Ecuadorean embassy mean he is technically/politically residing in Ecuador? Or is that an oversimplification when it comes to how embassies work?
- Tomte 10y agoYes, that's an urban legend.
- Symbiote 10y agoAn embassy is outside the jurisdiction of the host country, but is subject to the jurisdiction of the guest country. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vienna_Convention_on_Diplomatic_Relations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vienna_Convention_on_Diplomati...
- aljones 10y agohttps://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/sep/14/date-set-questioning-julian-assange-rape-allegation https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/sep/14/date-set-quest... Swedish prosecutors said the questioning would take place on 17 October and be conducted by an Ecuadorian prosecutor. Note: Today is 17 October.
- strictnein 10y agoYep, and the day came and Assange's lawyer was somehow unavailable and they postponed it another month.
- tomp 10y agoHe's repeatedly offered to be interviewed in the UK (before he was jailed in the embassy), and Ecuador has offered (at least publicly) for him to be allowed to be interviewed in the embassy.
- sleepybrett 10y agoHe isn't jailed in the embassy, he's escaping jail by hiding in the embassy.
- monocasa 10y agoHe's unable to leave without facing extremely stiff legal consequences. He is, at least, metaphorically jailed in the embassy.
- FireBeyond 10y agoConsequences of his own making. Don't make it out to be something forced upon him against his will.
- monocasa 10y agoCouldn't you make the same argument for nearly everyone who's jailed?
- roywiggins 10y agoIt's more like hiding in a friend's attic to avoid being arrested and claiming you're being imprisoned.
- monocasa 10y agoEven if the government knew that said friend was there and spent ~£10M on 24hr security so that he couldn't leave without being arrested?
- staticelf 10y agoRead about it, they do everything do prolong the process since there is no hinder for them to visit the embassy and commit an interview.
- strictnein 10y agoI guess you missed the part about how Sweden was going to interview him today and then magically Assange's lawyer wasn't available so they (Assange and the Ecuadorian embassy) postponed the interview a month.
- MertsA 10y agoSweden postponed it for 4 years, I would want my lawyer too given the circumstances.
- steamer25 10y agoIf https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_in_Sweden#Legislation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_in_Sweden#Legislation is to be believed, six years imprisonment is the maximum penalty for rape. At this point they could credit the majority of his sentence for time served.
- Tomte 10y agoCertainly not. He is not under any kind of arrest, but freely and voluntarily visiting his Ecuadorean friends. Why should that count towards any prison term? BTW, I don't think Assange would really face prison in Sweden. My best guess of what would have happened had he been extradited to Sweden: An interview, being held a few weeks, then released to a country of his choosing. He is inside the embassy because he likes the martyrdom that his followers clearly recognize. Not because there is any factual reason for it.
- stale2002 10y agoIf that is the case, then why has the British government spent millions of dollars guarding the embassy? Seems like am aweful lot of money for such a small crime that you are making it out to be.
- acdha 10y agoWhat government cheerfully accepts the precedent that you can dodge legitimate exercise of government authority like this? I mean, the U.S. Post Office will send armed officers after someone for mail fraud in even small amounts – not because it costs less than the crime but to serve as a deterrent for anyone else who might try it in the future.
- stale2002 10y agoAhh, so they are doing it as a deterrent. But perhaps there is other things that they are trying to deter people from doing. Like, maybe they want to deter people from pissing off powerful governments by leaking and embarrassing world leaders? Mind you, multiple American leaders have called for him to be arrested. Maybe the giant elephant in the room has more than a little to do with why the government is spending so much money and effort trying to arrest him.
- matt4077 10y agoIn a legal system, the accused doesn't get to negotiate the details of his interview. Assange, being the narcissistic idiot that he is, chose to imprison himself because for him, being imprisoned in an embassy at least feels a bit like a spy novel instead of just a case of him getting a bit too rapey. And how is this supposed to be "corrupt". Are you implying a vast conspiracy were the CIA is orchestrating everyone from a random prosecutor up to the highest courts of Sweden (Not that that would even be corruption as it's traditionally defined)?
- virtuabhi 10y agoI think you are not familiar with the current state of world. Read this and see if the question you posed is answered https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evo_Morales_grounding_incident https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evo_Morales_grounding_incident
- Yetanfou 10y agoIt is not worth trying to put the blame on Assange here, no matter if and in that case what sort of personality (disorder) he has. The simple fact is that the Swedish justice department acted in very strange ways in this case. I can not find blame for the first round of the case, he'd been accused of rape and those accusations need to be taken seriously. The accusations were investigated after which the prosecutor decided there was no case. This would and should have been the end, were it not that a new prosecutor (Marianne Ny) took up the investigation again and decided to prosecute, lack of case notwithstanding. She refused to hear him in the UK, refused to hear him in Sweden with a guarantee not to be extradited to the US. She refused and waited and drew out the case for such a long time that most of the charges went past the statute of limitations. The details of the case have been discussed far and wide [1] so there is no need to dig into them here, if you're interested just read a few sources (preferably from all sides of the political spectrum to get something resembling the truth). [1] https://www.google.se/search?q=assange+rape+case https://www.google.se/search?q=assange+rape+case