Six years a squatter - The long legal battle of Julian Assange

[rooster59]

Six years a squatter - The long legal battle of Julian Assange

Robert Hackwill

 

 

Julian Assange’s marathon duel with the law began six years ago. In 2010 the Wikileaks founder had Washington up in arms after he published 500,000 secret classified documents on the Iraq and Afghan wars, along with 250,000 diplomatic cables.

 

The former hacker became a hero for some, but public enemy number one for the Americans and a number of other governments, who said his revelations had put national security under threat, and lives of government agents and employees in danger. There is no evidence this is the case.

 

In December 2010 Assange was arrested by British police after Sweden issued a European Arrest Warrant based on an accusation of rape. Assange was freed on bail awaiting an appeal against extradition to Sweden, and the justice machine rolled inexorably on.

 

Assange denies the charges against him but fears that extradition will merely be a prelude to Sweden handing him over to US justice. In the following 18 months he exhausted all his appeal possibilities under British law.

 

And on May 30 2012 the UK Supreme Court issued its final ruling.

 

“The majority has concluded that the Swedish public prosecutor was a judicial authority, within the meaning of both the framework decision and the extradition act. It follows that the request for Mr Assange’s extradition has been lawfully made and his appeal against extradition is accordingly dismissed,” said Supreme Court President Lord Justice Nicholas Phillips.

 

To avoid extradition, Assange took refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he has lived ever since. On August 19 2012 he spoke to a crowd gathered outside with his new status conferred by Ecuador as a “person being prosecuted for political crimes”.

 

“As Wikileaks stands under threat so does the freedom of expression and the health of all our societies,” he said.

 

In February 2016 the UN’s working group on Arbitrary Detentions declared that Assange’s forced embassy refuge was just such an arbitrary detention.

“The Working Group maintains the arbitrary detention of Mr. Assange should be brought to an end, and his physical integrity and his freedom of movement should be respected,” said Chair-Rapporteur Hong Seong-Phil.

 

The legal tug-of-war continues, but there has been one development. Swedish investigators who had previously refused to travel to Britain to interview Assange, may now question him in London on October 17.

 

 

-- © Copyright Euronews 2016-09-17

 

[Chris Lawrence]

So what he did do did it cause any actual harm? If so what? After 6 years this should be well documented; or was that the ego of a few were dented and embarrassed? It is what it is, a lad from Oz giving the bird to the Yanks, who can't handle someone getting on top.

[craigt3365]

1 hour ago, Chris Lawrence said:

So what he did do did it cause any actual harm? If so what? After 6 years this should be well documented; or was that the ego of a few were dented and embarrassed? It is what it is, a lad from Oz giving the bird to the Yanks, who can't handle someone getting on top.

He broke laws, plain and simple.  And now is using this "they're coming after me!" defense.  Be a man, go to Sweden, and sort things out.  Easy.  But sadly, makes for great conspiracy theories.

 

If this is true, then Assange did commit a crime.  He needs a good lawyer to get it sorted out.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Assange

Quote

In December 2011 prosecutors in the Chelsea Manning case revealed the existence of chat logs between Manning and an alleged WikiLeaks interlocutor they claimed to be Assange;^[132][133] he denied this,^[134][135] dismissing the alleged connection as "absolute nonsense."^[136] The logs were presented as evidence during Manning's court-martial in June–July 2013. The prosecution argued that they show WikiLeaks helping Manning reverse-engineer a password.^[137][138] The evidence that the interlocutor was Assange is circumstantial, however, and Manning insists she acted alone

 

P.S. if you read the article, it's not just the US that's unhappy with him for leaking private and confidential info...

[Cats4ever]

He didn't leak the documents, he published them. Pentagon papers a few decades ago, ring any bells. The security maintained, that allowed Manning to pilfer the material, would be flattered if described as poor.

[coma]

If he goes back to Sweden to face the music, regardless of the outcome, guilty or not guilty. His next stop will be to the United States where he will spend the best part of the rest of his life incarcerated. Plain and simple.

[craigt3365]

1 minute ago, coma said:

If he goes back to Sweden to face the music, regardless of the outcome, guilty or not guilty. His next stop will be to the United States where he will spend the best part of the rest of his life incarcerated. Plain and simple.

Great conspiracy theory.  Assange has got many feeling sympathy for him due to this.  Luckily, it's not true.

 

http://foreignpolicy.com/2014/08/18/would-sweden-ever-extradite-assange-to-the-united-states/

Quote

 

Highly doubtful. Sweden’s extradition agreement with the United States, signed in 1961 and updated in 1983, prohibits extradition on the basis of "a political offense" or "an offense connected with a political offense." The agreement does not specify what constitutes a "political offense." Whether the Swedish supreme court would rule to extradite Assange largely depends on what charges the secret U.S. grand jury brings against him.

 

If Assange is accused of espionage, Sweden most certainly would not comply, as its courts have consistently determined that espionage constitutes a political offense. For example, in 1992 Sweden refused to extradite Edward Lee Howard, the only CIA agent to defect to the Soviet Union, to the United States. Charged with espionage, Swedish courts ruled that those accusations amounted to the kind of "political offense" specified in the extradition agreement.

 

 

[coma]

5 minutes ago, craigt3365 said:

Great conspiracy theory.  Assange has got many feeling sympathy for him due to this.  Luckily, it's not true.

 

http://foreignpolicy.com/2014/08/18/would-sweden-ever-extradite-assange-to-the-united-states/

 

 

If you believe that there won't be a loophole that the US will exploit to get their hands on him then that is your prerogative.

[craigt3365]

15 minutes ago, coma said:

 

If you believe that there won't be a loophole that the US will exploit to get their hands on him then that is your prerogative.

I'll stick with reports like this that say it will be very difficult.  And the US tried before with something similar and it didn't work.  But yes, not as fun as the conspiracy theories!

[ronrat]

The charges in Sweden are trumped up fitups and that is why he doesn't trust them. Taken the Swedes years to agree to meet him in the embassy, something they have been reluctant to do. That the US military allowed a gender   confused lowly ranked soldier to access and steal so many documents endangered other lives than Americans, allegedly. They should have sacked a number of high ranking officers in the US Army from medical to intelligence corps but no doubt promoted them and gave them medals. The UK and Australian Governments should also hang their heads in shame. past and previous. 

[Mansell]

If you are going to do something naughty do not piss off a government like the USA or Russia....one will hunt you down and the other one will kill you, probably with plutonium. Also they have unlimited funds when you do not. Good luck to these whistleblowers because they are risking everything. As for breaking laws.....laws are for the guidance of fools, and for governments to control the masses.

[craigt3365]

9 minutes ago, ronrat said:

The charges in Sweden are trumped up fitups and that is why he doesn't trust them. Taken the Swedes years to agree to meet him in the embassy, something they have been reluctant to do. That the US military allowed a gender   confused lowly ranked soldier to access and steal so many documents endangered other lives than Americans, allegedly. They should have sacked a number of high ranking officers in the US Army from medical to intelligence corps but no doubt promoted them and gave them medals. The UK and Australian Governments should also hang their heads in shame. past and previous. 

The charge is a potential rape.  Hardly trumped up.  They just want him for questioning.  Fair request considering the potential charge.  He's using a scare tactic to keep from reporting from the authorities.

[craigt3365]

7 minutes ago, Mansell said:

If you are going to do something naughty do not piss off a government like the USA or Russia....one will hunt you down and the other one will kill you, probably with plutonium. Also they have unlimited funds when you do not. Good luck to these whistleblowers because they are risking everything. As for breaking laws.....laws are for the guidance of fools, and for governments to control the masses.

So the law prohibiting people from driving drunk is only for fools?  Really?

[manfredtillmann]

11 minutes ago, craigt3365 said:

So the law prohibiting people from driving drunk is only for fools?  Really?

only fools would drink & drive, so Mansell's  statement is totally correct in this respect.

[coma]

7 minutes ago, craigt3365 said:

The charge is a potential rape.  Hardly trumped up.  They just want him for questioning.  Fair request considering the potential charge.  He's using a scare tactic to keep from reporting from the authorities.

 

    I am tipping Mr Assange knows A LOT more than you do about his personal predicament. And, underlined by the fact that he has incarcerated himself in the Equador Embassy for so long, would suggest that it is not all nice and rosy as you are trying to perceive.

    Don't forget he has people in high places that feed him information [about government plans and actions] that normal people [ you and I ] would never ever see or hear first hand. 

[Kabula]

I remember a time when all persons were, 'not guilty,'  until investigated, charged, and sentenced by a jury.

 

I miss all the freedoms most of the citizens of world once had.

 

It's all about negatives today and very little positive content.

 

 

[geriatrickid]

4 hours ago, Chris Lawrence said:

So what he did do did it cause any actual harm? If so what? After 6 years this should be well documented; or was that the ego of a few were dented and embarrassed? It is what it is, a lad from Oz giving the bird to the Yanks, who can't handle someone getting on top.

 

He apparently drugged and raped a woman. Obviously, you do not consider that to be a serious crime. Fortunately, the Swedish government does.

[geriatrickid]

5 minutes ago, Kabula said:

I remember a time when all persons were, 'not guilty,'  until investigated, charged, and sentenced by a jury.

I miss all the freedoms most of the citizens of world once had.

It's all about negatives today and very little positive content.

 

 

 

You forget that   Assange ran away. He did his utmost to  prevent  the investigation. Assange was of the view that  his alleged drugging and raping of the woman was no one's business. Well, the Swedish police had a duty to investigate and to protect the  alleged victim. It is unfortunate that you do not believe that women are worthy of legal protection and that sexual assault is a wrongful act.

[sgtsabai]

Drugged and raped, where in the world did you read/hear that? Breitbrat, US gov't propaganda, The Daily Caller? He had consensual sex, CONSENSUAL SEX,  without a condom and waking one "lady" that he had already had sex with and was sleeping with. That's it, that's all there is to that. The real story is why all of this is being done to him. He did not run away, he left thinking it was finished. Somebody better do a little research.

[coma]

33 minutes ago, geriatrickid said:

 

He apparently drugged and raped a woman. Obviously, you do not consider that to be a serious crime. Fortunately, the Swedish government does.

Key word in your post = "Apparently".

[Publicus]

2 hours ago, Cats4ever said:

He didn't leak the documents, he published them. Pentagon papers a few decades ago, ring any bells. The security maintained, that allowed Manning to pilfer the material, would be flattered if described as poor.

 

Assange accepted U.S. national security documents that were purloined. However, that the documents were purloined is additional to the fact that Assange is not authorised by U.S. laws to accept and receive anything related to national security to include intelligence information directly related and material to the U.S. national security.

 

In the act of accepting receipt of such documents, Assange violated U.S. national security laws, rules, regulations. The laws apply to anyone, anywhere, at any time under any such circumstance. That Assange violated U.S. national security laws and protocols on foreign soil is irrelevant and immaterial to his acts and circumstance, i.e., Assange is not authorised by U.S. law to do so. Assange is thus subject to extradition to the United States.

 

Neither is Assange a U.S. citizen nor is Wikileaks an institution of U.S. media protected by the First Amendment. U.S. media that published the Pentagon Papers in 1972 were protected under the First Amendment, and after the initial publication by the New York Times and then the Washington Post, thousands of U.S. media published the revealed Papers. The Supreme Court decided the matter in this way, exactly and precisely.

 

Speaking of courts, yesterday the appeals court of Sweden upheld the arrest warrant issued by Swedish authorities against Assange...

 

The news comes as a Swedish appeals court on Friday decided to uphold an arrest warrant for the Australian computer programmer, denying his latest attempt to make prosecutors drop a rape investigation from 2010.

 

"After reviewing the existing investigative material and what the parties have stated, the Court of Appeal finds that Julian Assange is still suspected on probable cause of rape," the ruling issued by a three-judge panel in Stockholm on Friday said, according to NBC News. "The Court of Appeal also shares the assessment of the District Court that there is still a risk that Julian Assange will flee."

 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/swedish-court-upholds-arrest-warrant-julian-assange-163224634.html 

 

Flee.

 

Most likely to his good pal Putin in Russia. Putin-Assange-Wikileaks-Snowden. The Four Horsemen of Espionage Against the United States, to most recently include its political system.

Edited September 17, 2016 by Publicus
Technical and content revision.

[craigt3365]

1 hour ago, manfredtillmann said:

only fools would drink & drive, so Mansell's  statement is totally correct in this respect.

I guess you could make the same argument about all laws then?  Only fools would break them? 

[craigt3365]

1 hour ago, coma said:

 

    I am tipping Mr Assange knows A LOT more than you do about his personal predicament. And, underlined by the fact that he has incarcerated himself in the Equador Embassy for so long, would suggest that it is not all nice and rosy as you are trying to perceive.

    Don't forget he has people in high places that feed him information [about government plans and actions] that normal people [ you and I ] would never ever see or hear first hand. 

Or, he's hiding behind a supposed threat.  And making many believe it's true.  Even so, he's committed a crime.  He created the mess.  Time to man up and deal with it.

[craigt3365]

56 minutes ago, sgtsabai said:

Drugged and raped, where in the world did you read/hear that? Breitbrat, US gov't propaganda, The Daily Caller? He had consensual sex, CONSENSUAL SEX,  without a condom and waking one "lady" that he had already had sex with and was sleeping with. That's it, that's all there is to that. The real story is why all of this is being done to him. He did not run away, he left thinking it was finished. Somebody better do a little research.

Doesn't look like consensual sex when Sweden is going after him for rape.  It's a criminal charge.  He needs to deal with it.  For better or worse.  Not hide like a criminal.  Oops...he is a criminal!

 

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/julian-assanges-arrest-warrant-rape-case-upheld-sweden-court-n649296

Quote

Julian Assange's Arrest Warrant in Rape Case Upheld by Swedish Court

 

[craigt3365]

32 minutes ago, coma said:

Key word in your post = "Apparently".

And thus the reason for the court wanting to question him.  Which he's trying to avoid.

[elgordo38]

6 hours ago, Chris Lawrence said:

So what he did do did it cause any actual harm? If so what? After 6 years this should be well documented; or was that the ego of a few were dented and embarrassed? It is what it is, a lad from Oz giving the bird to the Yanks, who can't handle someone getting on top.

Sorry Mr. Assanges you and Edward Snowden are both toast. Different cultures yes mentality the same as Thailand. Your actions have caused Mr. Obama a huge personal loss of face and as such you both will be prosecuted to the full extent of the "law" How dare you damage Mr. Obama's legacy. To the gibbets with you both. 

[impulse]

3 hours ago, craigt3365 said:

Great conspiracy theory.  Assange has got many feeling sympathy for him due to this.  Luckily, it's not true.

 

http://foreignpolicy.com/2014/08/18/would-sweden-ever-extradite-assange-to-the-united-states/

 

 

All the same, he'd be pretty foolish to bet the rest of his life on it.  

 

It's also against international conventions (not to mention bad form and pretty much unprecedented) to intercept and force land diplomatic aircraft because you think there's a whistleblower aboard.

 

Edit:  Betcha Snowden's glad he wasn't on it.  Assange would be an idiot to believe they won't go after him any way they can- legal or illegal.

Edited September 17, 2016 by impulse

[craigt3365]

7 minutes ago, impulse said:

 

All the same, he'd be pretty foolish to bet the rest of his life on it.  

 

It's also against international conventions (not to mention bad form and pretty much unprecedented) to intercept and force land diplomatic aircraft because you think there's a whistleblower aboard.

 

Edit:  Betcha Snowden's glad he wasn't on it.  Assange would be an idiot to believe they won't go after him any way they can- legal or illegal.

He leaked highly classified information.  In many countries, he'd never make it to court.  Luckily, I don't see the US doing that.  He'll get tried, in a highly visible court proceeding.  Not a bad thing considering what he did.

[impulse]

6 minutes ago, craigt3365 said:

He leaked highly classified information.  In many countries, he'd never make it to court.  Luckily, I don't see the US doing that.  He'll get tried, in a highly visible court proceeding.  Not a bad thing considering what he did.

 

I doubt it.  They'll claim the information to be presented at trial is of a classified nature, and the courtroom will be sealed in the interest of national security.  

 

Of course, the only national security they'll be protecting are the stories of misdeeds and embarrassments of the people in power.

 

[ddavidovsky]

My theory: Assange is gay (pretty obvious) and his subconscious motive has been to subvert conventional society by exposing its secrets and lies. I doubt his motives are political in the manner of Edward Snowden, but more social.

The Swedish charges are obviously trumped up but he is afraid of an enquiry as it would likely expose his homosexuality.

In the meantime, his time in the embassy is a voluntary exile, and may actually be a kind of relief from the strain of being in the closet.

[coma]

12 minutes ago, impulse said:

 

I doubt it.  They'll claim the information to be presented at trial is of a classified nature, and the courtroom will be sealed in the interest of national security.  

 

Of course, the only national security they'll be protecting are the stories of misdeeds and embarrassments of the people in power.

 

Yesss.