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Say what you will about what he has done in his life and feel free to have your own opinion about the way he has handled himself during all of this... What shou

Say what you will about what he has done in his life and feel free to have your own opinion about the way he has handled himself during all of this... What should concern people is the publicly visible example of a human being having their inalienable human rights ignored. It is debatable if what he did should be considered Journalism. Lots of legal questions about how U.S. laws should apply to people not citizens of the U.S. Tons of questions about his associations and about the 2016 election specifically... Still, none of this is a reason to isolate someone for years without a trial or access to legal counsel. If the U.S. is going to apply its laws to Julian Assange, it needs to apply the basic rights that come along with it. He deserves a right to counsel, a speedy and fair public trial by a jury, the right to not have his liberty or property taken from him without due process happening FIRST. These are all fundamental things we should all agree on regardless of the crime you have supposedly committed. This strange fusion of the entertainment, legal and prison systems will not stop at Julian Assange. It was done to Chelsea Manning. If it can happen to them, it could happen to you one day. TLDR; People have deserved a speedy and fair trial in western legal systems going back to when the Magna Carta was written. Whatever is happening here isn't justice.

choward 5y ago
> It is debatable if what he did should be considered Journalism. How so? How is what he did any different than the New York Times publishing whistleblower documents? It's only "debatable" because the media he's in competition with says it is.
shadowgovt 5y ago
It's hard to follow through on the right to a speedy and fair public trial when the defendant cries asylum and holes up in an embassy for years. Human rights always get fuzzy at the interface between nations. A lot of nations don't even agree on what human rights are.
- rcMgD2BwE72F 5y ago
  >It's hard to follow through on the right to a speedy and fair public trial when the defendant cries asylum and holes up in an embassy for years. you got this backwards
- Levitz 5y ago
  Let's be serious. He wasn't going to get a fair trial by any means whatsoever, absolutely zero chance of that happening. Yes if things were as they should be he shouldn't have fled and he would have had a fair trial with the guarantees it implies etc etc. But that wasn't going to happen.
  - viktorcode 5y ago
    Would love to know some examples of Swedish courts not giving fair trial due to international pressure. With links, please.
    - monocasa 5y ago
      His fear was not reaching the Swedish courts. Sweden has a habit of colluding with the CIA to illegally kidnap residents off of the street at night, and flying them to foreign prisons that have a more lassiez faire approach to torture. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repatriation_of_Ahmed_Agiza_and_Muhammad_al-Zery https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repatriation_of_Ahmed_Agiza_an... Britain in contrast makes it's former colony follow it's actual extradition process as a matter of honor. The closest the CIA has gotten to extraordinary rendition in British territory is occasionally allowing a CIA rendition flight to refuel in a far off territory, but even that was a huge scandal.
  - shadowgovt 5y ago
    > Let's be serious. He wasn't going to get a fair trial by any means whatsoever, absolutely zero chance of that happening. We'll never know that and there is no way to know. What we do know is that instead of surrendering to the justice process of several countries, he sought asylum. Any claim that his justice process wasn't speedy has to factor that in.
  - kspacewalk2 5y ago
    >He wasn't going to get a fair trial by any means whatsoever You state your very arguable opinion as some kind of fact. It's not. It's your opinion. The US is a country with rule of law, and this would have been a very public trial with tons of people coming to his legal aid. Even Manning got a fair trial, for a crime that Assange coaxed and encouraged him to commit by the way.

choward 5y ago

> It is debatable if what he did should be considered Journalism. How so? How is what he did any different than the New York Times publishing whistleblower documents? It's only "debatable" because the media he's in competition with says it is.

shadowgovt 5y ago

It's hard to follow through on the right to a speedy and fair public trial when the defendant cries asylum and holes up in an embassy for years. Human rights always get fuzzy at the interface between nations. A lot of nations don't even agree on what human rights are.

rcMgD2BwE72F 5y ago
>It's hard to follow through on the right to a speedy and fair public trial when the defendant cries asylum and holes up in an embassy for years. you got this backwards
Levitz 5y ago
Let's be serious. He wasn't going to get a fair trial by any means whatsoever, absolutely zero chance of that happening. Yes if things were as they should be he shouldn't have fled and he would have had a fair trial with the guarantees it implies etc etc. But that wasn't going to happen.
- viktorcode 5y ago
  Would love to know some examples of Swedish courts not giving fair trial due to international pressure. With links, please.
  - monocasa 5y ago
    His fear was not reaching the Swedish courts. Sweden has a habit of colluding with the CIA to illegally kidnap residents off of the street at night, and flying them to foreign prisons that have a more lassiez faire approach to torture. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repatriation_of_Ahmed_Agiza_and_Muhammad_al-Zery https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repatriation_of_Ahmed_Agiza_an... Britain in contrast makes it's former colony follow it's actual extradition process as a matter of honor. The closest the CIA has gotten to extraordinary rendition in British territory is occasionally allowing a CIA rendition flight to refuel in a far off territory, but even that was a huge scandal.
- shadowgovt 5y ago
  > Let's be serious. He wasn't going to get a fair trial by any means whatsoever, absolutely zero chance of that happening. We'll never know that and there is no way to know. What we do know is that instead of surrendering to the justice process of several countries, he sought asylum. Any claim that his justice process wasn't speedy has to factor that in.
- kspacewalk2 5y ago
  >He wasn't going to get a fair trial by any means whatsoever You state your very arguable opinion as some kind of fact. It's not. It's your opinion. The US is a country with rule of law, and this would have been a very public trial with tons of people coming to his legal aid. Even Manning got a fair trial, for a crime that Assange coaxed and encouraged him to commit by the way.