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Name one other incident where an international manhunt was conducted for what basically amounted to a groping charge. Also, from Wiki: Assange’s lawyers have i

by techrat 12y ago

Name one other incident where an international manhunt was conducted for what basically amounted to a groping charge. Also, from Wiki: Assange’s lawyers have invited the Swedish prosecutor four times to come and question him at the embassy, but the offer has been refused. So far the UK Police has spent over 6 Million Pounds keeping a stakeout on Assange. You really think this is as simple as him refusing to face sexual charges in Sweden?

alex_hitchins 12y ago
>for what basically amounted to a groping charge. Are you implying that groping isn't worth a criminal charge? I hope not. >Also, from Wiki: Assange’s lawyers have invited the Swedish prosecutor four times to come and question him at the embassy, but the offer has been refused. How kind of him to be so accommodating! >So far the UK Police has spent over 6 Million Pounds keeping a stakeout on Assange. As a UK National and UK taxpayer I am frustrated by this waste of money. Remove the coppers from the door, it's not like he can get out the country. >You really think this is as simple as him refusing to face sexual charges in Sweden? Yes
- skj 12y ago
  > Are you implying that groping isn't worth a criminal charge? I hope not. GP is implying, as was quite clear in the comment, that it isn't worth an international manhunt.
  - foldr 12y ago
    There is no international manhunt. There's a perfectly ordinary extradition order which the police will enforce if they get the chance. If they didn't enforce it, they'd either making a special exception for Assange or indicating that they are generally unwilling to enforce legally-obtained extradition orders (neither of which is a reasonable thing to expect the police to do).
    - techrat 12y ago
      >Assange has said he would go to Sweden if provided with a diplomatic guarantee that he would not be turned over to the United States[70] but the Swedish foreign ministry stated that Sweden's legislation does not allow any judicial decision like extradition to be predetermined. They could make an exception. They won't.
      - foldr 12y ago
        That's a perfectly reasonable response on Sweden's part, isn't it? They can't predict whether they will or won't receive a credible extradition order from the US in the future. There is, however, no particular indication that the US would try to extradite him from Sweden, or that they would succeed if they tried. As a blogger puts it: > As I understand, Assange wants the Swedish Government to guarantee that it will not grant extradition to the US. The US has not made any request to the Sweden on this matter. In other words, Assange wants the Swedish Government to pledge to use its veto power in relation to a non-existing request and before the Prosecutor-General and the Supreme Court has evaluated this non-existing request. There is nothing in the extradition of criminal offences act that deals with this scenario, but it would depart from established practice. There are some other interesting points made in the post: http://klamberg.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/extradition-of-assange-to-us-via-sweden.html http://klamberg.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/extradition-of-assang... Also here: >By asking for this 'guarantee', Assange is asking the impossible, as he probably knows. Under international law, all extradition requests have to be dealt with on their merits and in accordance with the applicable law; and any final word on an extradition would (quite properly) be with an independent Swedish court, and not the government giving the purported 'guarantee'. http://www.newstatesman.com/david-allen-green/2012/08/legal-myths-about-assange-extradition http://www.newstatesman.com/david-allen-green/2012/08/legal-...
    - trevelyan 12y ago
      Comments like this make me wonder how much astroturfing is going on here, or whether what we witness in these sorts of comments is just honest-to-god stupidity puffed up by a contrarian disregard for common sense and possibly pathological authority-worship. Leaving aside the point that any case involving extradition is by definition a international manhunt, and that the US is known to have started a grand jury investigation so there are at least three countries involved in the judicial mess, it is impossible to take anyone seriously who believes the UK government (or any government) would burn the amount of money it has and upend diplomatic relations with Ecuador over the extradition of a cooperative witness who has yet to be charged with anything. As a reader, one can only imagine these posters calling their Member of Parliament to ask why the police have not yet launched an international manhunt into the disappearance of their bicycle from the local chips shop. Have embassies been informed worldwide? Perhaps ISIS is involved!
  - alex_hitchins 12y ago
    As said below, it's not a manhunt. He's wanted for questioning in Sweden regards to a serious crime. He skipped bail and a big fuss was made when he got asylum in the embassy.

by techrat 12y ago

alex_hitchins 12y ago

>for what basically amounted to a groping charge. Are you implying that groping isn't worth a criminal charge? I hope not. >Also, from Wiki: Assange’s lawyers have invited the Swedish prosecutor four times to come and question him at the embassy, but the offer has been refused. How kind of him to be so accommodating! >So far the UK Police has spent over 6 Million Pounds keeping a stakeout on Assange. As a UK National and UK taxpayer I am frustrated by this waste of money. Remove the coppers from the door, it's not like he can get out the country. >You really think this is as simple as him refusing to face sexual charges in Sweden? Yes

skj 12y ago
> Are you implying that groping isn't worth a criminal charge? I hope not. GP is implying, as was quite clear in the comment, that it isn't worth an international manhunt.
- foldr 12y ago
  There is no international manhunt. There's a perfectly ordinary extradition order which the police will enforce if they get the chance. If they didn't enforce it, they'd either making a special exception for Assange or indicating that they are generally unwilling to enforce legally-obtained extradition orders (neither of which is a reasonable thing to expect the police to do).
  - techrat 12y ago
    >Assange has said he would go to Sweden if provided with a diplomatic guarantee that he would not be turned over to the United States[70] but the Swedish foreign ministry stated that Sweden's legislation does not allow any judicial decision like extradition to be predetermined. They could make an exception. They won't.
    - foldr 12y ago
      That's a perfectly reasonable response on Sweden's part, isn't it? They can't predict whether they will or won't receive a credible extradition order from the US in the future. There is, however, no particular indication that the US would try to extradite him from Sweden, or that they would succeed if they tried. As a blogger puts it: > As I understand, Assange wants the Swedish Government to guarantee that it will not grant extradition to the US. The US has not made any request to the Sweden on this matter. In other words, Assange wants the Swedish Government to pledge to use its veto power in relation to a non-existing request and before the Prosecutor-General and the Supreme Court has evaluated this non-existing request. There is nothing in the extradition of criminal offences act that deals with this scenario, but it would depart from established practice. There are some other interesting points made in the post: http://klamberg.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/extradition-of-assange-to-us-via-sweden.html http://klamberg.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/extradition-of-assang... Also here: >By asking for this 'guarantee', Assange is asking the impossible, as he probably knows. Under international law, all extradition requests have to be dealt with on their merits and in accordance with the applicable law; and any final word on an extradition would (quite properly) be with an independent Swedish court, and not the government giving the purported 'guarantee'. http://www.newstatesman.com/david-allen-green/2012/08/legal-myths-about-assange-extradition http://www.newstatesman.com/david-allen-green/2012/08/legal-...
  - trevelyan 12y ago
    Comments like this make me wonder how much astroturfing is going on here, or whether what we witness in these sorts of comments is just honest-to-god stupidity puffed up by a contrarian disregard for common sense and possibly pathological authority-worship. Leaving aside the point that any case involving extradition is by definition a international manhunt, and that the US is known to have started a grand jury investigation so there are at least three countries involved in the judicial mess, it is impossible to take anyone seriously who believes the UK government (or any government) would burn the amount of money it has and upend diplomatic relations with Ecuador over the extradition of a cooperative witness who has yet to be charged with anything. As a reader, one can only imagine these posters calling their Member of Parliament to ask why the police have not yet launched an international manhunt into the disappearance of their bicycle from the local chips shop. Have embassies been informed worldwide? Perhaps ISIS is involved!
- alex_hitchins 12y ago
  As said below, it's not a manhunt. He's wanted for questioning in Sweden regards to a serious crime. He skipped bail and a big fuss was made when he got asylum in the embassy.