4 ms·
Assange willingly showed up at a police station and was arrested by appointment. He probably has a plan.
by bobds 16y ago
Assange willingly showed up at a police station and was arrested by appointment. He probably has a plan.
- ebaysucks 16y agoAgreed - What happens in the next few days will tell a lot about the position the UK really has in this matter. The optimist in me is hopeful the UK is helping him to get the Interpol heat off of him and set him free on bail. After all, Assange might help the UK in anticipating future Wikileaks releases. There's plenty of potential for deals.
- pbhjpbhj 16y agoHow is this relevant to whether or not he committed a sexual assault? If there's a weight of evidence showing he's guilty then he should be extradited and tried.
- jacquesm 16y ago> If there's a weight of evidence showing he's guilty then he should be extradited and tried. Agreed. The corollary of that is that if there isn't he should be set free.
- msy 16y agoI think the plan is fairly simple: to clear his name by showing these absurd trumped-up charges for what they are, the machiavellian machinations of the US via a disturbingly compliant Swedish legal system.
- bobds 16y agoI read a good article on why the charges against Assange are absurd: http://rixstep.com/1/20101001,01.shtml http://rixstep.com/1/20101001,01.shtml And a more recent follow up: http://rixstep.com/1/20101202,01.shtml http://rixstep.com/1/20101202,01.shtml
- alextgordon 16y agoIs there a better source? I'm not sure I'm inclined to believe anything rixstep says.
- bobds 16y agoI'm not inclined to believe anything regarding Wikileaks or Assange. I'm sure more than a few people have seen those tweets and some Twitter crawlers/indexers have them stored somewhere. We'll see how it plays out, no need to speculate at this point.
- elai 16y agoWow, a conspiracy theory that would make sense. The US government finds the leak in may, knows wiki leaks has it. Knows that they'll not be able to directly attack the organization on free speech grounds so they create a character assignation plot and create a rape plot.
- RuadhanMc 16y agoUnless they actually charge him with something in Sweden -- which I believe is actually a requirement for this sort of warrant to be issued -- they won't be able to move him to Sweden. Hopefully sanity doesn't desert the British legal system as well.
- nagrom 16y agoSpoken by someone who doesn't know the British legal system well at all. The lack of sanity in the system is breathtakingly clear. We recently convicted someone for making a joke via Twitter, and he didn't have the resources of a government(s?) behind the conviction: http://heresycorner.blogspot.com/2010/11/with-conviction-of-paul-chambers-it-is.html http://heresycorner.blogspot.com/2010/11/with-conviction-of-... The British legal system is extremely thorough, but excrutiatingly slow. The problem with this approach to justice is that we tend hand people off to foreign governments and then it's too late to recall them. Lessons be will learned, no individual blame will be attached, and Assange will be ruined.
- evgeny0 16y agoIf that is indeed his plan then he is incredibly naive.
- ugh 16y agoIf I take the high-profile “rape” trials I know about as a guide (mere allegations, scant or no evidence, a hungry press and tons of lawyers) this could take a long, long while with much opportunity for Assange to say whatever he wants and a lot of pressure for all involved parties. It’s not as though Sweden can lock him up and throw away the keys. He is relatively safe in British or Swedish custody, if anything were to happen to him the respective governments would get massive problems and there would be no plausible deniability.
- gst 16y ago"It’s not as though Sweden can lock him up and throw away the keys." Don't be too sure. To quote from the Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/dec/06/wikileaks-julian-assange-police http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/dec/06/wikileaks-julian...): "Assange has also said that he declined to return to Sweden to face prosecutors because he feared he would not receive a fair trial, and prosecutors had requested that he be held in solitary confinement and incommunicado." The age of democracy is now officially over...
- moxiemk1 16y agoNot only has there been nothing resembling an "age of democracy" in modern times, but Julian Assange doesn't stand for democracy in any way, shape, or form. He has indeed demonstrated that modern technology combined with antiquated practice can enable a single person to control our institutions for his own purposes. Not really sure how that got mistaken with democracy. Let's use our words carefully and precisely. Did you mean the "age of free speech"?
- Udo 16y agoI think the plan is fairly simple: to clear his name by showing these absurd trumped-up charges for what they are, the machiavellian machinations of the US via a disturbingly compliant Swedish legal system. I'm sorry, but there is simply _nothing_ he could ever say to them that would make those charges go away. How is the name clearing supposed to happen?
- tdoggette 16y agoTraditionally, by starting with "Not guilty, Your Honor," and going from there, but things might be different in Sweden.
- atomical 16y agoHow are they absurd and how do you have such intimate knowledge of this case?
- nhangen 16y agoI'm fairly certain that running from the law in this instance would do more harm than good to his cause. If he's not guilty, then he's got nothing to hide. The sooner he clears his name here the quicker he can go back to doing his thing. They would've found him anyway, so he's just complying with the inevitable.
- steveklabnik 16y ago> If he's not guilty, then he's got nothing to hide. This assumes the other side plays fair. This assumes that the judge and jury will be rational. This assumes that it's really about sexual assault, and not about politics. Have you ever seen a rape trial? They're not known for being level-headed.
- jacquesm 16y agoWhen a rape trial starts out with something that is not a rape then 'level-headed' went out the window before the trial got started.
- eru 16y agoIsn't the job of an x-trial to find out, whether x has happened?
- jacquesm 16y agoYes, normally it is. In this case the definition of 'rape' has apparently been stretched well beyond the breaking point, to where the victim will throw a party for the perp only to go to the police several days later after colluding with another victim. Let's just say that I find the charge sufficiently heavy that I would expect the bar for being charged with this crime to be considerably higher than what is seen so far. And that's totally besides my views on wikileaks, Julian Assange or anything else.
- philwelch 16y ago
- binarymax 16y agoA possible blunder. This is way bigger than McKinnon and he had to fight tooth and nail. If Assange is not extradited to Sweden there is a good chance he will be sent to the US (maybe as an enemy combatant).
- ebaysucks 16y agoOn what possible legal grounds?
- sigzero 16y agoYou assume there needs to be legal ground.
- TallGuyShort 16y agoBut of course there does! Why, you need legal ground to issue an arrest warra.... Oh wait - now I see your point....
- binarymax 16y agoIf you are officially accused of being a terrorist (or aiding a terrorist organisation) by the states, they can hold you indefinitely. The UK can hold you as well without reason for a specified period as well (90 days?). The UK has very little to gain from his release and much to lose - it will injure US/UK relations.