The Swedish prosecuting authority announced at a Stockholm press conference Monday that Sweden would seek Assange’s extradition from Britain to face investigation on a nearly decade-old allegation of sexual assault.
By Joe Lauria
Special to Consortium News
Sweden’s deputy director of public prosecution, Eva-Marie Persson, said Monday that Sweden would seek the extradition of Julian Assange to face a nearly ten-year old allegation of rape.
Persson: Reopen investigation.
Assange is serving a 50-week sentence at Belmarsh prison in London for skipping bail in the rape case in 2012. Assange had lived inside the Ecuadorian embassy from June 2012 to April 11 this year, when Ecuador lifted his asylum and allowed British police to enter the embassy and arrest him.
On the same day the United States unveiled a sealed indictment accusing Assange of intrusion into a government computer. The U.S. also filed an extradition request for Assange.
Persson told a press conference in Stockholm on Monday that it would be up to British authorities to determine which extradition request—to Sweden or to the U.S.— would take precedence. She also said she wouldn’t speculate on an extradition request from the U.S. to Sweden since one had not yet been made.
The BBC reported:
“The decision as to which of the two requests take precedence will be made by UK Home Secretary Sajid Javid. He would make his decision primarily on the basis of which alleged offence was considered to be more serious. Rape is likely to be considered more serious than conspiracy to commit computer intrusion. That would mean ordering Assange’s extradition to Sweden.”
Britain may take the opportunity to wash its hands of the politically thorny case of extraditing a publisher to the United States by sending him to Sweden instead, though Persson said Assange could not then be extradited to the U.S. from Sweden without Britain’s consent.
Finne in 2010: “I don’t think there is reason to suspect that he has committed rape.”
Persson said her decision to reopen the case on “probable cause” was based on evidence, which she said was sufficient to suspect Assange of rape.
Swedish authorities had twice dropped the investigation. The first time was just weeks after the allegations were made in August 2010.
An arrest warrant was canceled on Aug. 21. Then Swedish chief prosecutor Eva Finne said that day: “I don’t think there is reason to suspect that he has committed rape.”
Assange left Sweden for Britain with Sweden’s permission in September. When he arrived in Britain an international arrest warrant was issued for him on Nov. 18, 2010.
Assange turned himself in on Dec. 7 and was released on bail. He fought Sweden’s extradition requests after Sweden refused to give his lawyers an assurance he would not be then extradited to the U.S. When his final appeal was lost, Assange asked for and received political asylum in Ecuador’s London embassy.
In cryptic tweet, Ardin says she wasn’t raped.
Assange said he would welcome Swedish prosecutors coming to the embassy to question him, and prepared a written statement, but documents uncovered in a FOIA request by Italian journalist Stefania Maurizi showed heavy pressure from the British government on Sweden to not come to London.
In 2016, Swedish prosecutors ultimately visited Assange at the embassy and in May of that year ended the investigation, which has now been revived. At the time the investigation was dropped for a second time, Katrin Axelsson and Lisa Longstaff of Women Against Rape wrote:
“The allegations against [Assange] are a smokescreen behind which a number of governments are trying to clamp down on WikiLeaks for having audaciously revealed to the public their secret planning of wars and occupations with their attendant rape, murder and destruction… The authorities care so little about violence against women that they manipulate rape allegations at will. [Assange] has made it clear he is available for questioning by the Swedish authorities, in Britain or via Skype. Why are they refusing this essential step in their investigation? What are they afraid of?”
The statute of limitations on the rape allegation runs out in August 2020.
Persson said the investigation would end after that if no charges are filed against Assange. The rape allegation was made by Anna Ardin, a Swedish national, who later admitted in a cryptic tweet that she was not raped. Last month, however, she tweeted:
“I would be very surprised & sad if Julian is handed over to the US. For me this was never about anything else than his misconduct against me/women and his refusal to take responsibility for this. Too bad my case could never be investigated properly, but it’s already been closed.”
Ardin’s lawyers held a press conference at 7:30 a.m. EDT on Monday. Ardin said through her attorney that she was “relieved” that the investigation will be restarted.
Greg Barns, Assange’s Australian lawyer, tweeted: “Sweden request to re open questioning after closing their files twice is extraordinary. This is abuse of process.”
Catherine Vogan contributed to this article.
It’s a payday for sweden’s prosecution just like Ecuador got a 4 billion + IMF loan.
better prison conditions?
The Swedish government is acting viciously disgusting!
Important article as to why the”Justice system” in the us wants assange dead:
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/05/why-everyone-in-the-u-s-who-counts-wants-julian-assange-dead.html
The extradition request to Sweden seems to be a cabal plan to cross another plan that is unfolding in the US, in my view. If you look carefully, what Assange has been charged with in the US is absolute legal piffle. Nothing to get him executed or locked up for life for. On the other hand, him testifying in the US would blow open the largest can of Deep State worms imaginable. It seems to me that this is what the Trump administration is aiming for and what this Swedish vanguard action tries to prevent. Remember that at the end of the day Sweden is a monarchy and thus a direct vassal of the Vatican crime cartel whose global agents are known as the Deep State in the US.
Julian Assange can be credited with bringing court-actionable evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity by our governments to the public. That is the real reason behind the perversion of the course of justice that Sweden, the UK and the US have been engaged in.
To give you an example, just last week, I found evidence of the private intelligence service Stratfor non-consensually implanting their employees using free flu vaccines distributed to the employees, see the Wikileaks Global Intelligence Files here: https://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/emailid/53659
The same non-consensual covert implanting without the knowledge of the victims has been happening across the US and Europe for decades. Now THAT is the real scandal.
In my view, every time the global crime cartel acts against Julian Assange, WE should retaliate by dredging up even more from the Wikileaks and filing charges against the criminals in court. This should be repeated systematically o the point where they would rather keep mousy silent about Assange and leave him in peace, lest our attention is drawn to his material again.
Julian Assange: What happened
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZ0UgJRPhxw
Hire two streetwalkers and make them claim rape. Bribe or intimidate a judge who upholds the case. That’s how the cleansing in Hollywood happened recently and everyone with any integrity is gone.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
These charges are wholly political, designed to smear Julian Assange’s character and to erode public support and sympathy especially among feminists. I have reviewed the material in this case. As a woman, I am convinced that the encounter was consensual. Any other interpretation is political lynching!!
And for the Swedish Prosecutor to re-open the case after it has been closed, at least, a couple of times is perversion of justice. No extradition to Sweden or the USA! Julian can’t find justice in the Swedish or the US courts.
Brand Stockholm Syndrome lives up to namesake!
The crucifixion lust just reinforces their cannibalism pride, but the bought and paid for law school politicians will never understand how computers work!
None of this should be terribly surprising, and yet . . . . I seem perpetually amazed at what madness comes next. For over 500 years now Europe and her colonies (now her former colonies like the U.S., Canada, and Australia) have made a mockery of the concepts of law, ethics and morality. If two world wars last century were not enough we can easily connect the dots from our Western history of the chattel slave trade, the genocide of Native peoples, and the brutal colonization of the entire planet directly to the current “humanitarian interventions,” and “regime-change” wars (exposed by Wikileaks) carried out only of course because of the West’s traditional love of humanity.
We no longer justify our mass violence and pillage as bringing “civilization,” “saving souls,” and sharing “christianity,” as now we have now updated to a more secular mythology and claim we are bringing “freedom” and “democracy.” Of course of our uber violent benevolence comes neatly wrapped in a deep respect for “human rights,” particularly it would appear for the human rights of “investors” and “war profiteers.”
Europe’s contempt for international law was made clear by it’s cynical amoral slap stick support for the Orange One’s attempts to appoint “random Guaido” to the presidency of Venezuela. Clearly there is nothing that should really surprise us in any and all attempts by Western oligarchy and empire to crush Assange and to discredit Wikileaks.
It’s all fabricated by the US government. The suppose rape victim should be more examined.
One bizarre and important detail about this case that isn’t mentioned in this article is that the original rape allegation was made by the Swedish prosecution on behalf of the other woman, Sofia Wilen–who never said that she had been raped and refused to sign a statement based on an interview with her in which the claim that she had been raped was made. Wilen subsequently disappeared from the Internet without a trace. Anna Ardin has likewise never stated that she was raped in any official document or public statement. Who ever heard of a rape investigation when there hasn’t been anybody claiming to have been raped?
Prior to granting the British Police access to the Ecuadorian Embassy to arrest Julian Assange, Moreno sought assurance from the British Government that Assange would not be extradited to any country that maintains a death penalty in its laws, such as the U.S. This ploy evidently was planned as a way to skirt that precondition in order to fulfill the demands of the U.S.
There is no “new evidence” and if any new evidence miraculously appeared Sweden’s Deputy Director of Public Prosecution, Eva-Marie Persson would have eagerly and joyfully provided it! This abuse of power makes me wonder how much money Eva-Marie Persson must have been paid for doing this dirty deed. (Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap AC/DC playing in the background) Why does America bother to rely on producing fake evidence at all? No one believes the authenticity of reopening the absurd fake rape case. These “disgraceful procedures used by Sweden, the United States, and the United Kingdom, as well as the complicity of mainstream media outlets that primarily published on biased accounts. Such as the “prize-winning Swedish journalist Martin Fredriksson noted for his left-wing, pro-NATO and anti-WikiLeaks commentary was revealed this month to have been a paid agent of Säpo, (Sweden’s nation’s security service)”. Not to mention Sweden has repeatedly violated Assange’s rights to due process under a veneer of legal and human rights rhetoric” (Justice Integrity Project).
Check the link below for a very interesting factual account of the Assange case dated July 23, 2012. It begins with Assange’s coming to fame and activities in Iceland, moves on to what happened with the two women in Sweden, and continues the account up to what was going on in the embassy in 2012.
Note that today’s language from the Swedish prosecutor’s office includes “probable cause for Mr. Assange to be suspected of rape.” Current accounts also include British lawmakers stating to UK Home Secretary Savid Javid “We urge you to stand with the victims of sexual violence and seek to ensure the case against Mr. Assange can now be properly investigated.”
The terms “rape” and “sexual violence” are highly dubious and being applied to Assange without qualifications or cautions on this language.
Also without any context provided on the actual behaviors of Assange and the women involved.
For example, it is odd that both women sought his company, were excited to accompany him, and continued to associate with Assange following what is now alleged as “rape” and “sexual violence.”
For more information and a valuable read, check this source:
https://wikispooks.com/wiki/Document:Sex,_Lies_and_Julian_Assange
He is better off in Sweden because I heard that in Sweden you can use a “political defense” which in the US is not allowed. But, even in the US a political defense will be unstoppable because it will be the trial of the Century at least until they can get their hands on Trump.
I don’t think “I love Wikileaks Trump” wants to try him because wikileaks is popular with too many voters. If they really want to extradite Assange, why haven’t they requested it yet? If he goes to Sweden after Britain he will have a good chance of beating the rap and the Case is too weak to take seriously in Sweden or the US.
Too Clarify I heard that in Sweden you can use a “political defense” against extradition which in the US and England is not allowed
Assange and WL have many gigs of data still to be released. I fully expect that WL will release all of them if JA is renditioned to the US via the ‘dead man’s switch’. The 5 Eyes intelligence agencies are seriously in fear of this so now they are increasing the ante in demonizing JA to the max. If JA survives this ordeal, it will be a miracle.
If anyone is still wondering why Ralph Nader has never had a personal life of any kind, you need not look further than the catastrophe that has befallen Julian Assange as a result of his moment of weakness. After being propositioned awkwardly under strange circumstances during the time he was being actively investigated by GM so they could smear him, and turning them down because he was suspicious of them, he evidently took a silent vow of celibacy. This is what happens to people who tell truths not wanted known by the wealthy and powerful.
I met Mr. Nader and the lady I presume to be his wife! “No private life”?
Donna, I would love to be wrong, but I am afraid you may have met a sister of Mr. Nader’s, who is also unsurprisingly brilliant and shares many of his concerns. If I am wrong, and I would like to be wrong, maybe someone who is absolutely certain can set me straight. In any case, what has happened to Mr. Assange is a travesty of law and justice, regardless of what is next for him.
We can add Sweden to the group of America’s bitches:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1efOs0BsE0g
And yet again Australia doesn’t bother to defend its citizen’s freedom, fight for him, nothing, nada. They’re even more America’s bitch than Sweden.
The following surmise is penned with a dose of optimistic ignorance. (Or is it ignorant optimism?) I wonder if there is any chance Sweden intends to actually save Assange — by snatching him from the jaws of US ‘justice,’ then refusing to honor a US extradition request based on (say) the obvious danger that he could never, ever get a fair trial in the States.
Sorry-no chance. It is the knowledge that the Swedes would give in at once to US demands that Julian took the fateful step of entering the Ecuador Embassy. The Brits under May/Jeremy Hunt et al are as bad, of course.
I had the same thought and then realized what has happened in Sweden/
Sweden has become eine judaisierte Scheißgrube, einige ihrer Städte sollten “dresdenisiert” werden..
The Islamic population of Sweden is about 8% — roughly 10 times larger than its Jewish population.
I’d be careful about the racism, prejudice and hatred you so blatantly display.
Hello Joe Lauria and Everyone, It seems that governments are being pressured by the FASCIST STATES OF AMERIKKKA to get Julian Assange. If they get him to Sweeden then he most likely will never be seen or heard of again as the FSA will insure the total disappearance of JA. His fate will be completely sealed at that point.
Assange, what to do with him?
Wikileaks has effectively been dead and buried for some time now, assassinated by the Governments of Europe, Britain and US/Israel interconnected intelligence services that actually control all Dept of States and Diplomatic Services.
Who buried Wikileaks?
The public at large, or to be more correct, the tiny part of public at large of that are largely made up of idealistic and opportunistic upper income children.
None who have actually hands on or physicly seen or participated in the miseries caused by their governments aquiesence
, passive and hidden agressive, chaos outside their nanny states comforts.
WIKILEAKS was not a true organization made up of hands on investigate journalist, it was a digital aggregator of works done by others, mostly of non journalist, depending upon the likes of courageous whistleblowers such as Snowden and but at most 5 others, some that have since served jail time or surrendered to Powers That Be rules and guidelines of the very systems they once exposed as dirty and as corrupt as any oppressive regimes in history.
Assange as a fighter for truth and justice, a fighter goes down swinging and does not hide in a corner or play dope a rope running from opponents punches
His woe is me hand wringing cheerleader floozies, today no more than paid You tube professional mourners, complain about how miserable he was while hiding in a Foreign embassy but did not lift one physical finger when he was openly snatched from that embassy.
Now they stay kissing and farting hot air into the wind from their keyboards.
Sorry folks The Powers That Be have won and still are carrying on as before, while we like refugees that run from wars, will survive as best we can.
What unsupportable propaganda blather:
1. Obviously Wikileaks is not “buried” as you wish;
2. Obviously if it were, that would not be the work of “upper income children”;
3. Obviously “opportunistic upper income children” are in general not idealistic;
4. It is of no consequence that Wikileaks is an “aggregator” of leaks, and even that is journalism;
5. You fail to discredit Wikileaks by the insupportable pretense that it is somehow not journalism;
6. You fail to discredit Assange with the ridiculous pretense that “a fighter goes down swinging”;
7. You fail to discredit his supporters for not militarily responding against superior force when he was arrested;
8. It appears very much that you are a propagandist trying to appeal to his supporters, but without reason.
Thank you for a forensic discrediting of the above. Breathing in the clarity.
I suggest you hide behind your behind after posting such nonsense.
Sweden has come along way down from the days when they welcomed Vietnam War draft resistors. It used to be known as a very progressive-and sexually easy going – country. During WWII it was famous for sheltering Jews escaping the clutches of the Nazis.
I knew something was amiss when Karl Rove got involved with Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt’s election campaign. However an article in Huff Post https://www.huffpost.com/entry/rove-suspected-in-swedish_b_798737, suspects Rove was also advising the Prime on going after Assange to please the Obama administration. This is in line with “Turd Blossom’s” favorite sport; which is scurrilous politically motivated prosecutions; a tactic he refined and used prolifically throughout his filthy career.
The other day I came across a report that suicide in some country more than others is on the increase in leaps and bounds with the US holding top spot with returned GIs but also ones still in active service. I went through the thirties and forties which couldn’t hold a candle to all the garbage of today making it very understandable that people can no longer put up with it, and end their life. Holding a JD degree International Law it is beyond understanding how a case dismissed not ones but twice. The rape allegation was made by Anna Ardin, a Swedish national, who later admitted in a cryptic tweet she was not raped. Now 9-years later the case is revived and activated. Planet Earth is not only being destroyed through Global Warming it is also being destroyed because International Law (60% of which was written at American Law Universities), is thrown on the scrap heap.
Words for my feelings. Thank you. Triste!
You should bear in mind that Sweden is no longer the democratic socialist utopia. It is part of an American-occupied zone of Europe, and is even more sycophantic toward the US than most other regimes this side of the pond. Petainist scum, they disgust me.
So obviously a case of p olitical manipulation of the justice system.
Also, obviously these women wanted to have sex with Julian.
Whether as groupies or CIA operatives or whatever. It doesn’t even matter, except as evidence.
Also obvious that most men will say yes when sex is offered by an attractive woman, esp. when you are already crushed together in a single bed.
The “I was asleep” gambit is old as the hills!
What a crock.
In our #MeToo crazed evidence-challenged environment, it’s shoot first.
But isn’t reopening this investigation with no new evidence some kind of double jeapardy?
What is the new evidence? New arm twisting by the CIA or MI6.
I believe Ardin was tossed out of Cuba under the suspicion of being CIA. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a classic “Honey Pot” operation.
Or Hillary Clinton! Her long claws are deep in the CIA and Wikileaks exposed her as a phony, incompetent fool.
It’s worth summarising briefly what is known about these allegations.
It is known, for example, that the CIA was trying to frame JA with child pornography allegations. This was a horse that wouldn’t run, so they turned to the rape allegations instead.
It is known that JA had consensual sex with the 2 women concerned. There has never been any suggestion of any violence.
There was some kind of issue over a condom breaking or not being used. If that is the strength of the allegations, then every man on the planet could be convicted of rape.
When the Swedish police became involved, it was treated as a joke – they knew they would be laughed out of court if they brought a rape case on that basis. The Swedish prosecutor confirmed no offence had been committed. No attempt was made to arrest or question JA when he was in Sweden.
This was the position in 2010. There was US interference, and a different prosecutor resurrected the case after a Swedish politician with close links to the US interfered in the case.
One of the two women concerned has written a manual on how to take revenge against men after being “dumped” or disrespected by them. This recommends using false and malicious allegations to ruin the lives of the men concerned.
Sweden dropped the case again officially in 2013. It was obviously so weak as to be a travesty.
There was political pressure from the UK government on Sweden to keep the case open, to blacken JA’s reputation.
And the case has now been resurrected again, after 9 years, though no charges have ever been brought.
Sweden has a history of complicity with the US in rendition, torture and murder. In a particularly notorious case, a refugee was kidnapped by the CIA in Stockholm, spirited away to Egypt, and horrifically tortured. There are many others.
One of the few saving graces of this whole sorry saga is that it has shown up the corrupt and politicised UK, Swedish and US “justice” systems for what they are, a mechanism for political persecution and intimidation. Some people still believe in fairy stories like an independent judiciary and separation of powers. They have now taken off the mask. The real casualties in this case are the judicial systems of all 3 countries.
These three states are very fond of climbing up on their high horse and giving the rest of the planet lofty sermons and pious lectures about their human rights failings, and how they need to pull their socks up to match the exalted standards of our “rules based” system.
This moral preening should be worth a good belly laugh from now on.
If this “rape” case is actually pursued, it will be laughed out of court. It would represent such a devaluation of the offence as to make it worthless.
On another level, it is to be hoped that the women who have allowed themselves to be used in this way are held to account and have to answer for their behaviour. This case is taking place in a country which thanks to mass third world immigration is now the rape capital of the world. Where violent rapes of very young children are no longer even investigated because the police are simply swamped by the number of outstanding cases.
There may be a wider effect on society across the world. There is an emerging phenomenon of “Men Going Their Own Way”, men avoiding any contact or involvement with women at all, particularly at work, avoiding responsibility and limiting themselves to occasional very casual relationships with women strictly on their own terms. In particular, avoiding having to work with women, training or mentoring women, and even speaking to them or looking at them at work. This makes some kind of sense when men are sacked for looking at someone or coughing at someone “in a sexist way.” Men look at things like the Kavanagh case and draw the appropriate conclusions. People like Pence refuse to be alone with a women. Women stand to be the losers at the end of the day, as men devote their lives to alternatives like football, beer, fishing, and motor bikes. Society is the loser as well. No stable families, no children being brought up by both parents. That is the present reality.
Surprising that Swedish law allows dropping the case three times and resuming it without exceeding a statute of limitations or a res judicata defense. Perhaps Mr. Assange can be extradited from Sweden by Russia on the accusations of a female walrus. Indeed the matter has “taken off the mask” of the “independent judiciary and separation of powers” and the executive branch.
As written, this article seems to me to suggest that Ardin is the remaining complainant, but Wilen is.
What is being done to Julian Assange is the very definition of political persecution.
I don’t know what happened between Assange and either woman. However, I do know the following: 1. Sweden does not care about these women’s rights. If they did, they would, after initially closing the case, have followed Swedish law and taken in any new information which was provided. After checking into any new information, they would have also followed Swedish law by, interviewing Assange. If unsatisfied with the answers, they would have reopened the case immediately. This is like the rape kits left on the shelf in the US. If you care about rape, you examine them. If you don’t, you let them sit there.
2. Destruction of evidence. If you care about women being raped, you most certainly do not destroy evidence in their case. Yet this destruction is admitted by the Swedish prosecutor’s office.
3. There is a lot of redacted information which we aren’t allowed to see. In parts we are allowed to see it shows the subversion of Swedish law by the prosecution’s office. This subversion was requested by the US/UK and the prosecution showed they were willing lackeys in service to the US/UK.
Without the release of all the redacted information, we are missing a great deal of context in this matter. It should be unredacted and released to the public immediately.
Can you give a link to that please (destruction of evidence by the Swedes)I’ve been searching for it everywhere
The reason the Swedish government has re-opened the case is because they have been ordered to by the US. The UK government is terrified that if they extradite Assange to the USA there will be riots and probably attacks on ministers and Members of parliament or worse. Now that Sweden has been compliant to the demands of the US, the UK government can dispatch Assange to Sweden on rape charges and so avoid a great deal of flack. If Assange is extradited to Sweden you can be sure there will be no rape charge or anything else and he will on the next plane to the US.
1. Is the UK govt really afraid of losing support due to rendition, after putting Mr. Assange in Belmarsh?
2. If UK and Sweden allow extradition to US via Sweden, their voters will know what happened anyway.
3. Were US/UK treaty faults spotted, not present in a US/Sweden MLAT (multilateral legal assistance treaty)?
4. Is it a vain hope that Sweden is providing a means for UK/Sweden to avoid US coercion (as I suggested)?
5. Can the case be reopened under Swedish law after so many years? Would a res judicata defense be accepted?
6. Does the accuser intend to relent again? If Sweden were not pleased, would they let the US extradite him?
7. But I do not ask Swedish or UK lawyers to advise, if they need surprise; if so I can handle the suspense.
Yes, especially since apparently there is a “special agreement” between Sweden and the US that allows for Sweden to “temporarily surrender” defendants, so long as the other party (the US) guarantees that the defendant will be returned as soon as its own proceedings are concluded. And we all know how much US guarantees are worth…
That sounds extremely likely. I hope you are right about the riots in the UK-the “Conservatives” are deservedly hated by many already, but the people need to realise how important this issue is.
Ugh! What’s that smell?! Oh, I remember now; it’s the sulfurous stench of the war criminals Bolton and Pompeo and the thugs at the CIA. They are starting their smear campaign as the line up the kangaroos to fill the court and the locomotive gathers speed to railroad Assange.
This clearly is a smear, sexual misconduct was the original charge. His tryst with the woman was consensual, he removed the condom during sex. The use of the R word is not even near the situation but the news needs juicy words so now Julian is a rapist to America and Europe now.
And trying to explain it I’m a rapist apologist.
Brilliant really
How convenient to the US and UK (does the government in the UK think it would lose its court case?) that Sweden has suddenly renewed its accusations? Renewed its extradition request? Hmm. Highly dubious – just like the so-called “evidence” regarding the rape charge, from my earlier reading.
Would extradition be easier from Sweden than from the UK? Fewer people there who would support Assange?
Another – semi-related question: Why on earth is Assange, supposedly being held for skipping bail (hardly a violent crime) and for an inordinate length of time, in BELMARSH prison?? (Mind you, it’s a total disgrace that any such prison exists anywhere within the UK’s jurisdiction.) Skipping bail is *not* the equivalent of blowing people up (even assuming the other prisoners at Belmarsh did anything like that) – and the real criminals e.g. Blair, Wilson (the Chagos Islands), May, Cameron should be held within its walls but, of course, aren’t.
I have also read, though cannot confirm, that Assange is being administered dangerous mind altering drugs. Furthermore, US government employees, from the DoD, FBI and the CIA have been interviewing Assange in Belmarsh Prison, prior to any extradition decision. See: https://www.lewrockwell.com/2019/05/karen-kwiatkowski/pray-and-weep/.
Why I am Convinced that Anna Ardin is a Liar — Craig Murray, 2012-09-11
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2012/09/why-i-am-convinced-that-anna-ardin-is-a-liar/
Thank you jmg and Craig Murray.
Politics instead of justice, anyone?
“Let me tell you. You take on the intelligence community, they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you.” (Senator Chuck Schumer)
Excellent catch jmg, Craig Murray has an interesting take on this and his past involvement makes him an important source for making a decision. My own initial thought is that Julian is better off anywhere but in america (See Skip Scott’s statement below). And, thanks again Joe Lauria for fighting the battle…
Unfortunately, Murray’s latest post comes across a bit like something Ed Meese might’ve said in the 80’s; “if you have nothing to hide, there’s no need to worry about prosecution,” or something like that.
Murray even acknowledges that Swedish justice is not impervious to imperial meddling, which makes his current opinion all the more puzzling (especially when he further relates that Sweden has already terminated the investigation…twice).
I live in Sweden and feel sick about it. Some institution has to investigate how US is involved in this because. People here don’t know about Assange case as the main media channel SVT only report basic info while not asking critical questions like the relevance of 50 week in high security prison. Swedish people think he is a sex abuser because of this! The people here need to be enlightened!
You need a Swedish whistleblower to get some stuff to Wikileaks! It is not just the Swedes who have been accosted by endless propaganda regarding Assange. The Empire controls the MSM in the USA and Europe. I am fearful that it is getting to the point where MSM outlets won’t even cover any leaks that run counter to the Empire’s narrative. Full Spectrum Dominance has nearly arrived. Sites like CN are the last outposts of real journalism.
> I live in Sweden
Then perhaps you could tell Ms Persson that somebody draped the wrong armorial bearings (those of Sweden) on the wall behind her at the press conference…
Government in Sweden turns out to be just as sick as it is in the other European countries. US Empire toadies all.
I was going to write about my utter disgust with what these governments are doing to Assange, but your post sums it up susscintly. “Empire toadies all.”
“Fish rot from the head first.”