Assange wanted on new charges; Espionage (US) and rape (Swe)

[Rostavykhan]

And this kind of reasoning, and the cheek in telling it, is exactly why people like America so much and absofuckinglutely no one would ever love to smash some USian head. Ever.

I hear tell the Carabinieri like to do that sort of thing, if that's your general predilection.

Lol, just get some Afghans and Vietnamese with a few rifles, they can get the job done just fine.

[Senkaku]

ooh I'm go buy some champagneeeee, I hope he gets extradited

[Novus America]

If Britain agrees could they not interview him while he is in British custody?

Now? Perhaps. The thing is, though, they have interviewed him before, and I don't think they deem it necessary to do so again. What is pressing is actually getting him in front of a judge an getting him - and the swedish term for the next step in the process doesn't directly translate to english, but I'll go with the commonly used translation anyway - charged.

Can they fly a Swedish judge to the UK to do that?

[Vassenor]

Oh right, apparently qAnon is already claiming he's going to spill the beans on all the stuff Obama and Hillary did in the name of derailing Trump.

[Juristonia]

Aren't they pretty much always claiming someone is about to do that?

[Eglaecia]

Horrible news. There's a 50% chance he's gonna die under mysterious conditions/suicide in prison, and a 50% chance he'll be found guilty for whatever bullshit they accuse him of. Whatever happens, it's a dark day for journalism. He's in jail while Dubya, Tony Blair and company roam free for their war crimes. Disgusting.

[Vassenor]

Horrible news. There's a 50% chance he's gonna die under mysterious conditions/suicide in prison, and a 50% chance he'll be found guilty for whatever bullshit they accuse him of. Whatever happens, it's a dark day for journalism. He's in jail while Dubya, Tony Blair and company roam free for their war crimes. Disgusting.

Remember, forcing your sources to doxx people is a good thing.

[Gormwood]

Aren't they pretty much always claiming someone is about to do that?

"THIS time Clinton and Obama will be exposed, we swear!"

[Chestaan]

Extradite him to Sweden but not to the US.

[The Emerald Legion]

Extradite him to the US to piss off Sweden.

[Galloism]

Aren't they pretty much always claiming someone is about to do that?

"THIS time Clinton and Obama will be exposed, we swear!"

I'd like them to expose Bush & Cheney. I know it's really fucking late, but I'm still kind of salty over the whole domestic spying and torture thing they got started that, for some reason, we have never truly killed.

[The Nihilistic view]

Extradite him to Sweden but not to the US.

Extradite him to the US to piss off Sweden.

Oi, hands off! We get him first for skipping bail!

[Shofercia]

WikiLeaks founder arrested for alleged breach of bail at London embassy where he took refuge for seven years

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/apr/11/julian-assange-arrested-at-ecuadorian-embassy-wikileaks

Assange arrested following the withdrawal of asylum by the Ecuadorian government

https://www.theguardian.com/media/live/2019/apr/11/wikileaks-founder-julian-assange-arrested-at-the-ecuadorean-embassy-live-updates

Julian Assange, 47, (03.07.71) has today, Thursday 11 April, been arrested by officers from the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) at the Embassy of Ecuador, Hans Crescent, SW1 on a warrant issued by Westminster Magistrates' Court on 29 June 2012, for failing to surrender to the court.
He has been taken into custody at a central London police station where he will remain, before being presented before Westminster Magistrates' Court as soon as is possible.
The MPS had a duty to execute the warrant, on behalf of Westminster Magistrates' Court, and was invited into the embassy by the Ambassador, following the Ecuadorian government's withdrawal of asylum.

http://news.met.police.uk/news/arrest-update-sw1-365526

Obviously a breaking story, but the question of extradition may now be relevant.

Should Assange be extradited to the US if they request it?
Should Assange be extradited to Sweden if they request it?

I think no and yes, respectively.

If only there was an EU scholar whom I deeply respect that could summarize my view on it... oh wait, there is:

Should Assange be extradited to the US if they request it?
Should Assange be extradited to Sweden if they request it?

1.No because the UK is bound by ECHR standards, and should not extradite people to countries which are notorious for disrespecting the basic rights of detainees, especially of foreign detainees.
2.Yes because Sweden is a CoE country which upholds the ECHR.

Thank you Ris. I completely agree. I was against his extradition to Sweden earlier, primarily because I thought the result would be the loss of asylum status. Now that he already lost it, due to Lenin Moreno pulling the equivalent of Vladimir Lenin when he hightailed it to Finland, there's no major reason to not extradite him to Sweden.

Should be extradited to the US.

Let his friends in the Russian government care about him.

Just going to save this response the next time you whine about journalists being oppressed somewhere.

I hope the American government does not get its hands on him. At best, Assange would only be subjected to a kangaroo court show trial. Based on the torture Chelsea Manning endured, I imagine Assange would be grievously abused while in American custody.

I want to clarify something though - I do not think of Assange as a hero, and in fact he seems to be quite an odious person. The rape charges he faced in Sweden seemed quite credible. But whether he is guilty or innocent of that, it would be a mistake to make him a hero or martyr. He is only a man. It is what Wikileaks has done, the information they brought to light, the secrets exposed that matter.

I do not care much for Assange as a person and I don't really care what kind of sentence he receives for skipping out on his bail, I just don't want America to have him. Assange may have done despicable things in his personal life, but his personal life isn't what the feds are interested in.

I love that Wikileaks can strike fear in the most powerful corporations and governments on Earth. I love that no secret is beyond their reach. And when Assange is gone, when Wikileaks is gone, all I hope is for another person or organization to pick up the torch.

Wikileaks isn't going anywhere. When Lenin Moreno attempted to muzzle Assange, Wikileaks continued to function. As for a figurehead, not sure who'll takeover, and I'm not sure they need one.

I'm not a fan of Assange, nor am I a fan of publishing unredacted information that could expose the locations of a agents. But considering that he exposed the location of zero Ecuadorian agents, something tells me that this one is more about the elites demanding that their bank accounts stay hidden, which could lead to Assange becoming a hero, should he be murdered under suspicious circumstances, jailed for life or a really long time - at least over a decade, tortured in prison, be sentenced to death, etc.

I'm looking forward to Assange being sent to the US. This didn't have to happen now though, this could've been done 7 years ago or so. Ecuador is an insignificant country, so there is no consequence if the UK barged into that embassy anyways. You have to respect the embassy of a country like Japan or Russia, but for Ecuador? I'd say they don't warrant respect. If the UK temporarily didn't have an embassy in Ecuador, so what? They shouldn't have pulled this stunt to begin with.

The weaker nations of the world should be told what to do and they should do it if the demand is from a stronger nation and it is within reason, that is their role. If they want to elevate their ranking, they can always go to war (if they can win that is).

Or we can respect intentional institutions such as embassies, and not go to war unless absolutely necessary. Just a thought.

[The Emerald Legion]

Or we can respect intentional institutions such as embassies, and not go to war unless absolutely necessary. Just a thought.

But who are we supposed to ritually sacrifice if we don't go to war over silly reasons?

[Shofercia]

Is he still valuable? Can we sell him? Failing that, is he interested in hacking the EU's Brexit negotiators?

...Edit: The specific part of Moreno's statement:

I requested Great Britain to guarantee that Mr Assange would not be extradited to a country where he could face torture or the death penalty. The British government has confirmed it in writing, in accordance with its own rules

The loophole that the British Home Secretary can use, if inclined to do so, would be a guarantee from US prosecutors that they wouldn't seek the death penalty against Assange...

And the US can work around that by having the Federal Government try him for one of his crimes, and not ask for the death penalty, and then have a State Government try him for another one of his crimes, and ask for the death penalty. But I didn't expect Lenin Moreno to seek an intelligent guarantee.

Scotland Yard has confirmed the existence of a extradition request from the US.

Downing Street 10 says they will hand over Assange in the next two years because extradite means extradite.
Only no.
Yes.
No.
Maybe.
Backstop.
No.
Yes.
No.
Fisheries.
No.
Yes.
DUP.
No.
Yes.
Later.
Now.
Extension.
No.
Yes.
Parliament takes control.
No.
Yes.
Yes.
No.
Parliament rejects whatever Downing Street says.
Parliament comes up with another plan.
No.
Yes.
No.
Maybe.
Later please.
No.
Yes.
No.
Scottish independence.
No.
Yes.
No.
Yes.
Dunno.

I mean. Trump liked assange last I heard.

Trump has a habit of literally saying one thing then doing another on any given issue. Although given Wikileaks' apparent cooperation with Russia I will not be surprised if Trump interferes on Assange's behalf.

I was wondering when we'd have a conspiracy theory in this thread. Second page. Not bad.

A sentence of five years after spending seven years locked up in the embassy would be quite funny.

If that's what ends up happening, the whole Ecuadorian saga would be hilarious. But there's also the possibility of him being tortured in prison.

A sentence of five years after spending seven years locked up in the embassy would be quite funny.

And that's if he doesn't get a pardon.

If it's five years, pardoning him would be moronic. Trump, who kicked Democrat ass during elections, certainly understands what to do, and what not to do, when it comes to winning Presidential Elections.

[Gravlen]

I haven't read it yet, but random strangers on Twitter (some of whom usually have good legal analyses) tell me that it's a pretty weak indictment.

Oh look, I freely concede that I'm not remotely an expert on this sort of thing. You should definitely trust the opinion of people with actual experience of American indictments over me.

Just to be clear, I see no contradiction between your post and what they've been saying so far.

The indictment seem to say that they did indeed work directly together. However, it seems to claim that Assange encouraged Manning to go after more files after she'd downloaded the first bunch, and offered to help by cracking a password to give her broader access, but it didn't work. Helping to attempt to crack the password is where they claim there's a conspiracy, and that's not much, all things considered. Hence the low maximum penalty.

That said, five years? At an absolute maximum?

As I said before, he spent longer than that holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy. It's hardly the kind of draconian sentence that many Assange supporters feared. It sounds more like an exercise in face-saving.

Let the Swedes have him.

Yeah, it's a bit silly, after all this drama. Should he get the maximum he'll be out in, what, three? Compared to seven years at the embassy...

Also, the statute of limitations clock was apparently running low on the US charges as well.

[Vassenor]

I'm kind of getting bored of this whole "Person X did [GOOD THING] so we must overlook [BAD THING] that they may or may not have done" thing.

[Shofercia]

Or we can respect intentional institutions such as embassies, and not go to war unless absolutely necessary. Just a thought.

But who are we supposed to ritually sacrifice if we don't go to war over silly reasons?

A dumb Congressperson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cesSRfXqS1Q

Extradite him to Sweden but not to the US.

Extradite him to the US to piss off Sweden.

Oi, hands off! We get him first for skipping bail!

Considering that Swedish charges have a deadline, and American charges don't, wouldn't it make sense to extradite him to Sweden, let him face trial, fly him back to UK, have him spend the 12 months in prison, and then have him serve the Swedish sentence, if he's found guilty there?


On a quick side note, I have to wonder what was Lenin Moreno thinking when he agreed to let the Brits properly enter the Ecuadorian Embassy and grab Assange. Moreno's own part was already quite pissed off at him, and I doubt that the opposition is going to want Moreno in power. Former Ecuadorian President Correa is now using this event to paint Moreno as an American stooge who is working to enrich himself: https://www.rt.com/news/456265-moreno-r ... ge-correa/

Former Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa explained to RT why he calls his successor Lenin Moreno the "worst traitor" in the country's history for handing over WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to British authorities... "It was not Rafael Correa, who gave asylum to Julian Assange. It was the state of Ecuador. And the state of Ecuador had to protect the person it pledged to protect according to international law and its national pride. Instead they gave him up, allowed the British police to enter our embassy," he said.

He added that the move also violated the constitution of Ecuador, since Assange is now a citizen of the Latin American country and is owed protection accordingly. "This is unheard of. These actions cannot leave one not outraged," he said... Moreno believes that the site was responsible for publication of explosive documents, which implicate him and his family members in corruption...

"In 2018, [US Vice President] Mike Pence visited Ecuador, and he and Moreno agreed on three things. Isolate Venezuela, which Moreno did with great enthusiasm. Drop a case against Chevron, which he gladly did as well. And hand over Assange," the ex-president said. "WikiLeaks publishing documents about [Moreno's] blatant corruption was the latest straw... Moreno knows that he and his family will go to prison for corruption and money laundering. So before he leaves, he wants to harm as many people as possible, including Julian Assange," Correa alleged. "He decided to ruin another person before going to prison. He is moved by pathological hatred and in his desire to take revenge, that's why he gave out Assange to the British police."

Imagine if Obama said that about Clinton during the 2016 Presidential Election. Ouch.

[Gravlen]

Now? Perhaps. The thing is, though, they have interviewed him before, and I don't think they deem it necessary to do so again. What is pressing is actually getting him in front of a judge an getting him - and the swedish term for the next step in the process doesn't directly translate to english, but I'll go with the commonly used translation anyway - charged.

Can they fly a Swedish judge to the UK to do that?

No, because the judges don't have jurisdiction outside Sweden, so they aren't allowed to do what judges do on foreign soil. Or their local court districts, for that matter. Their authority is very limited, geographically speaking.

[Shofercia]

I'm kind of getting bored of this whole "Person X did [GOOD THING] so we must overlook [BAD THING] that they may or may not have done" thing.

And who's arguing that in this thread? Or are you just making a random post of one of the things that ails you?

[-Ocelot-]

Should be extradited to the US.

Let his friends in the Russian government care about him.

Just going to save this response the next time you whine about journalists being oppressed somewhere.

Are you keeping tabs on people around here?

[Gravlen]

Interesting Twitter-post from a defence attorney with some cyber-crime experience:

So they've got Assange arrested on a provisional warrant. I'm told the U.S. has 65 days submit a final warrant (aka they can still bring new charges until then) After that, they're locked to what they seek extradition on, if I'm understanding this right. #Assange

[Gormwood]

And that's if he doesn't get a pardon.

If it's five years, pardoning him would be moronic. Trump, who kicked Democrat ass during elections, certainly understands what to do, and what not to do, when it comes to winning Presidential Elections.

Wanting to close the southern border before getting talked out of it not to mention exacerbating migration by cutting off Central American aid is definitely a trait of someone who knows what to do. And you're rather generous calling a minimal win an ass-kicking.

[Sneudal]

Should Assange be extradited to the US if they request it?
Should Assange be extradited to Sweden if they request it?

I think no and yes, respectively.

No and no (The Swedish case solely because it's expired).

[Ifreann]

Should Assange be extradited to the US if they request it?
Should Assange be extradited to Sweden if they request it?

I think no and yes, respectively.

No and no (The Swedish case solely because it's expired).

Apparently it isn't.