Craig Murray spots the latest phase of judicial and media bias against the publisher of WikiLeaks.
By Craig Murray
CraigMurray.org.uk
In Sweden, prosecutors have applied to the Swedish courts to issue a warrant for Julian Assange’s arrest. There is a tremendous back story to that simple statement.
The European arrest warrant must be issued from one country to another by a judicial authority. The original Swedish request for Assange’s extradition was not issued by any court, but simply by the prosecutor. This was particularly strange, as the chief prosecutor of Stockholm had initially closed the case after deciding there was no case to answer, and then another, highly politically motivated, prosecutor had reopened the case and issued a European arrest warrant, without going to any judge for confirmation.
Still from “Sex, Lies and Julian Assange.” (YouTube)
Assange’s initial appeal up to the U.K. Supreme Court was in large part based on the fact that the warrant did not come from a judge but from a prosecutor, and that was not a judicial authority. I have no doubt that, if any other person in the U.K. had been the accused, the British courts would not have accepted the warrant from a prosecutor. The incredible and open bias of the courts against Assange has been evident since day 1.
My contention is borne out by the fact that, immediately after Assange lost his case against the warrant in the Supreme Court, the British government changed the law to specify that future warrants must be from a judge and not a prosecutor. That is just one of the incredible facts about the Assange case that the mainstream media has hidden from the general public.
The judgement against Assange in the U.K. Supreme Court on the point of whether the Swedish prosecutor constituted a “judicial authority” hinged on a completely unprecedented and frankly incredible piece of reasoning. Lord Phillips concluded that in the English text of an EU treaty “judicial authority” could not include the Swedish prosecutor, but that in the French version “autorite judiciaire” could include the Swedish prosecutor. The two texts having equal validity, Lord Phillips decided to prefer the French language text over the English language text, an absolutely stunning decision as the U.K. negotiators could be presumed to have been working from the English text, as could U.K. ministers and parliament when they ratified the decision.
I am not making this up – you will find Phillips amazing bit of linguistic gymnastics here on page nine, paragraph 21 of his judgement. Again, it is impossible that this would have been done to anybody but Julian Assange; and had it been, the outcry from the mainstream media against the preference given to French wording and thus French legal tradition would have been deafening. But given the state’s opne animus against Assange, it all was passed quietly with the law simply amended immediately thereafter to stop it happening to anybody else.
The law having been changed, this time the Swedes have to do it properly and actually go to a court to issue a warrant. That is what is now happening. As usual, The Guardian on Monday could not resist the temptation to tell an outright lie about what is happening.
The main headline is completely untrue. Sweden has not filed a request for arrest. Sweden is going through its judicial processes – which it skipped the first time – in order to decide whether or not to file a request for arrest. This gives Assange the opportunity to start the process of fighting the allegations, which he strenuously denies, in the Swedish courts. However, at present his Swedish lawyer cannot access him in London’s Belmarsh high-security jail, which is typical of the abuses of process to which he is subject.
It is not political correctness that prevents the U.K. mainstream media from investigating the extraordinary nature of the allegations against Assange in Sweden. For example, in the case of Nafissatou Diallo, the hotel housekeeper who brought charges against prominent Frenchman Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the U.K. media had no compunction whatsoever in publishing the name of the alleged victim from the very first moment of the allegations against DSK. The entire story was raked through in detail by every single national newspaper, and extensively by the BBC.
DSK: His accuser named far and wide in UK media. (YouTube)
I have never heard anybody even attempt to explain why it was OK for the MSM to look in detail at Diallo’s accusations and use her name, but Anna Ardin and Sofia Wilen must never be named and their story must never be doubted. The answer is not the position in Swedish law – the Swedish law states that neither the accuser nor the accused may be named, which law has been gleefully broken in Assange’s case every day for nine years. When it comes to Assange, he is simply to be reviled. He is provably treated differently by both state and MSM at all points. It does not matter to them that his arrest warrant was not from a judge, or that the media apply entirely different rules to investigating his case, enforced by a feminist mantra they do not believe or uphold in other cases. He is simply to be hated without question.
Why has there never been a documentary in the U.K. like the brilliant “Sex, Lies and Julian Assange” from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s flagship Four Corners programme? Please do watch if you have not done so already.
William Tyndale, Protestant reformer and Bible translator. (Foxe’s Book of Martyrs via WikiMedia Commons)
Julian Assange revolutionized publishing by bringing the public direct access to massive amounts of raw material showing secrets the government wished to hide. By giving the public this direct access he cut out the filtering and mediating role of the journalistic and political classes. Contrast, for example, the “Panama Papers,” which — contrary to promises —only ever saw less than 2 percent of the raw material published and where major western companies and individuals were completely protected from revelation because of the use of MSM intermediaries. Or compare WikiLeaksto the Snowden files, the vast majority of which have now been buried and will never be revealed, after foolishly being entrusted to The Guardian and The Intercept. Assange cut out the intermediary role of the mediating journalist and, by allowing the people to see the truth about how they are governed, played a major role in undercutting public confidence in the political establishment that exploits them.
There is an interesting parallel with the reaction to the work of Reformation scholars in translating the Bible into vernacular languages and giving the populace direct access to its contents, without the mediating filters of the priestly class. Such developments will always provoke extraordinary venom from those whose position is threatened. I see a historical parallel between Julian Assange and William Tyndale in this respect. It is something worth bearing in mind in trying to understand the depth of the state’s hatred of Julian.
Craig Murray is an author, broadcaster and human rights activist. He was British ambassador to Uzbekistan from August 2002 to October 2004 and rector of the University of Dundee from 2007 to 2010. This article first appeared on his website.
It’s a payday for Sweden prosecution just like Ecuador got a 4 billion + IMF loan.
Would there be a money trail to follow or could it just be an IOU?
Assange is dead.
Does anybody here really expect anything else to happen? He’s been demonized, painted into the corner as another Public Pariah, and that’s all it takes for the apathetic morons who comprise most of the population of the planet to dismiss what he published and then easily forget him when he’s murdered by whichever government entity gets there first.
He will ‘attempt to escape’ or he will make one of his torturer/jailers ‘fear for his/her life’ or he’ll have a sudden ‘heart attack’ and three days later not a single corporate mouthpiece will remember his name. Or he’ll disappear into the US Gulag that is every bit as effective as the USSR’s was.
He will be xxxx’d out of existence and nobody will care. Then the insane powerful will take apart what’s left of Wikileaks and it will be xxxx’d out of existence. All of the truth published by Wikileaks will just disappear from the ‘net. If you haven’t printed out or copied to thumbdrives (and backed those up) everything that they have done for all these years, what they have sacrificed and worked for will be for naught. It already seems like it was all for nothing seeing the trajectory the politics of the species is heading down.
We are so far off the cliff that you can’t see the edge above you.
Then there is the looming acceleration of catastrophic climate collapse leaning over us like an asteroid strike out of the sky (and we’re the asteroid).
The entire damned world is being destroyed by extreme wealthy Neoliberal psychopaths (doesn’t matter what political label they call themselves) and anybody, ANYBODY who gets in their way will be taken out.
I still have my ‘McGovern’ for president button. A couple of weeks ago I was called a ‘misguided idealist’ by a true democrat on another site who blamed Ralph Nader for Cheney’s Iraq War Crimes when talking about an article titled: ‘It’s Official: We’re In a Constitutional Crisis.’ He just couldn’t let go of his beliefs which is so akin to religion it made me gag.
The trajectory has been down my entire life. I’m pretty sure I can see the jagged rocks at the bottom.
So this is what it felt like being an intelligent citizen with critical thinking skills in 1933 Germany. Or is it 1938??
sealintheSelkirks
If you want to learn more about Craig Murray’s political views and background, see the interesting two-part interview with him on RT UK’s Alex Salmond Show (Salmond is the former head of the Scottish Nationalist Party):
https://www.rt.com/shows/alex-salmond-show/
(Note that the word “Liberal” as used there refers to the British Liberal Party and its policies, not the current U.S. usage meaning “left-of-center”.)
Tnx Craig Murray4 presenting facts thus far hidden from Julian “news”…
Sweden has confusing & unique prostitution laws which may be applicable2 our observer prospective: While it is Illegal2 purchase sex it is Legal 2 receive pay for sharing one’s sexual favors.
Tnx2 Mr Murray revealing names of Assange accusers this body of law factor may be a factor2 an independant investigator concerned by Julians’ scapegoating…
(Past my comm ability however)… TNX CRAIG
I’m not a very politely person or wasn’t until I watched this travesty of justice unfold. I’m just a Wife Mother Grandmother and practicing Christian. I saw on tv this man being manhandled out of the Embassy in London and was horrified.
I didn’t know much about Julian Assange or Wikileaks., so instead of following the crowd who want to crucify him I decided to look into his life and understand as much as I could. I watched you tube interviews for weeks from years ago until now. What is happening to this man is unbelievable. Ok so if he has to go to court don’t shout out he’s a narcissist and throw him into Belmarsh without giving him a fair go. Any one can see he was not well, his eyes were squinting against the day light. It doesn’t matter if you like the personality of J A or not. This is so much more than a person. It’s about fairness and truth in the judicial system. I can’t believe that I don’t see hardly any of the press cry out against extradition orders . Where are they ??? As I said I’m not really political but I can see this is sickening. To give his belongings to another country and trash the rest is unbelievable, if he were in another country people would be screaming out for his Human Rights I read to today on FB Amnesty International doesn’t think he’s a prisoner of conscience , I hope that’s not true, please give him a fair go, where is innocent until proven guilty. I pray for him and Chelsea Manning and Ola Bini and their families, even though I don’t understand all of it but I wonder what will happen to other journalists and publishers when it happens to them and there is no one who will protest their situation. I will continue to pray for a miracle because that’s what it will take, Divine Intervention. ? I pray the Truth sets them Free
I am with you. I do not understand why so many people are still talking about his rape charge, which never was. People just hear a word and jump to conclusions. All these charges have been talked about and dismissed; yet people continue as if they have never heard anything about it. (Possibly they haven’t and are just ignorant. That must be the case. But then they should refrain from posting their ignorant opinions.)
Assange is a man, whose brilliance, intellect, and good looks, invites a lot of envy. Most of his enemies have no intellectual ability, whatsoever. Some can’t even read or write, being on the lowest level of intellectual achievement. A gorilla does better.
Now that Assange is vulnerable, being physically ill after a long captivity, those, who have nothing to offer, shout the loudest, asking him why he did not go somewhere else… instead of the Ecuador Embassy. (However: their options to offer alternative refuge are nil.)!
When Assange was busy publishing Wikileaks, many papers like NYT, WPO, and others, took advantage of his revelations and profited from publishing them. Now they want to make sure they do not get thrown under the bus by governmental idiots, they vilify Assange, to be on the safe side.
Intellectually inferior people do that kind of thing, always watching out for their own hide’s wellbeing, instead of their intellectual integrity, which they know nothing about.
Assange is a genius.
Many a genius is destroyed because of envy by those who are inferior, and who have no understanding what it means to know something worth while.
A POW type snatch mission is his only hope now. That would require inside help, and would have been a lot easier if done at the embassy.
The method of threatening, controlling, murdering, and also imprisoning journalists under the guise of espionage – (Assange now has new charges, 17 more, they say) – is identical to the previous nazi regime’s methods in the Berlin of 1941, as Howard K. Smith illustrated in “Last Train From Berlin”. As to the new charges, see RT etc.
“Previous nazi regime”?
Think about it, Comrades
I see where Assange has been charged with The Espionage Act:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/05/23/wikileaks-founder-julian-assange-indicted-leaks-conspiracy-manning/1207119001/
If convicted in Virginia (CIA Central), and of extradited to the U.S. he WILL be, doesn’t that carry a death penalty sentence??
Hillary Clinton famously said, “Can’t we just drone him??!”
In a way, she might get her wish yet.
The religious analogy is fitting. Much of current policy in the US and UK is logically indefensible, and best equated with religious dogma. Were Assange’s concept of transparency implemented, global impacts would rival the Reformation.
Interesting analogy!
Assange MAY be being screwed, but having him paste himself to (how do you spell) Ecuador for (how many) years, he’s become a royal ? pain in the ass.
simply gobsmacking, JD
Could you point out better choices that he could have made?
Do you think the current government of Ecuador is on the right side of history?
Let’s distinguish between the legal process on the one hand and the substance of the allegations made by the Swedish women on the other. No-one should get a free pass on sexual assault allegations. It is not for the media (mainstream or not) to determine Mr Assange’s guilt or innocence, that is the role of the Swedish courts. We have no reason to think that they will fail to carry out this role properly according to law. And I say that as someone who admires Mr Assange’s decision to publish the Wikileaks revelations.
Are you contending there was no political hanky-panky when the charges were pressed?
I strongly recommend this point by point involving the charges:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZ0UgJRPhxw
This is also why I have stopped linking anything to The Guardian and The Intercept. Both are acting for the deep state in their respective countries.
ditto
may they both find a special place in the eternal cooker.
Michael Fish, Longueuil, Canada
Someone, please tell me where my thinking is wrong. If Assange is extradited to the US, he will not get a fair trial and will probably spend the rest of his life in prison or the death penalty for treason. If he is extradited to Sweden, he will go to prison for rape charges which may only be for x number of years. Correct me.
If he’s extradited to Sweden the plane is likely only to touch down there to refuel on its way to the US. Maybe he’ll even accidently fall out of the plane into the Atlantic, a la Osama bin Laden.
President Trump reelection campaign team need Assange to tell the public who had hacked DNC servers and passed to him those stolen emails back from in 2016 election, in order to clear out his Russian collusion witch hunt from some hysterical Democrats –maybe it was an inside job like CIA or NSA or even democrats-hired hackers rather than Russians that passed those emails to Assange.
So if the UK judicial courts are somehow deliberately procrastinating on the US’s extradite request, the US has pressured Sweden to reopen Assange’s honey trap rape cases to extradite him to the US via Sweden judicial courts, to get him one way or another just in time before November 2020.
Russia did not hack the DNC computers. Haven’t you read the numerous articles that have been posted here showing that the files had been downloaded? Everything that the mainstream media has reported on this has been propaganda. Craig Murray was involved with getting the files to Wikileaks.
Everything involved with Russia Gate has been a lie that was first created by Hillary’s staff when Wikileaks told the world that they would be releasing the files that showed how Hillary and the DNC rigged the primary against Bernie. They did that so no one would focus on their content. This worked.
Thanks for this insight. Well written and to the point. I am sharing but the public just doesn’t care about anything anymore. We deserve what is coming.
To look for any kind of real legal basis for Assange’s arrest warrant by Sweden or any other State System is a waste of time. These systems quit following real justice and just laws a long time ago. They do whatever they want, and then make clumsy attempts to make their crimes appear legal.
Yes, that is the tragedy of corruption of democracy, all in service of the puerile vanity of the scammers and bullies who rise to power in an unregulated market economy, to control unprotected democratic institutions. At least the majority can celebrate a beautiful Spring, until “the winter of our discontent” reforms or replaces our institutions. And meanwhile we can design better institutions.
Thank you for this article!
Many important points and many questions that could have been discussed instead of the mainstream articles lately which have pushed tbis whole rhetoric of “all yr hero’s are prob rapists/ look how far he’s fallen he even smears shit on the walls coz he’s a disgusting human being …”
No mention of how long hed been incarcerated for at that point
If anyone is interested in these subjects ..i would recommend people looonuo amnesty international’s recent report on sexual violence in Nordic countries. Although it’s unfortunate that the report almost exclusively looks at only women as victims of sexual assault…it is nonetheless a valuable resource as it shows just how ridiculous any claim is avout Assange not deserving special treatment. .
When hust 6% of cases are actually prosecuted in court in Sweden one has to ask why??? Why ..
And 7% of cases reported to police are turned down immediately often because the person reporting having experience sexual violence is seen as having mental health problems and as someone who reports multiple times … eg – sex workers (sex work is seen as self harm in Sweden .. And if u experience violence then its your fault unless u promise to quit and then follow thru with it…)
Add tbat to the revelations that Sweden has been getting orders from US to introduce policy around patents for years and signed up as a third part for 5eyes n cooperating with US since 19rr…so y3ah yiubcijk
In the vernacular of the UK underworld Julian is being ‘fitted up’ by the British and Swedish lackey states by – specifically the media and judicial systems ever bidding to follow their masters instructions. This clearly demonstrates the fact that both states at all levels are completely under the control of domestic security and intelligence agencies and that Europe is a US occupied zone.
Wich are the three worst countroes in the world? amerkkka, england and…sweden.
Only sheep allow themselves to be turned into shepards pie, which is what they deserve. (very unfair on actual sheep)
I read this ( Craig’s piece ) on his site the other day and did not comment there. This article says things that no one else is mentioning and is required reading to open eyes across this good earth. I hope people are paying attention.
It is not about linguistic interpretation, this is about legal interpretation of EU treaty within each country legal system, that is not the same across EU .
For example Spain and France has institution of investigative judge and his/her authority partially overlaps with that of prosecution, while in other countries judge has no such prerogatives of prosecutor. Hence while in France investigative judge can be considered judicial authority, prosecutor in Sweden cannot as those two authorities are separated under Swedish law.
It is nothing but suspension of rule of law in EU under illegal US imperial pressures.
Thank you for that clarification. So this misconstruction was deliberate abuse of law for political purposes.
I have seen that many times in the US: the judiciary make up anything, completely ignoring the laws and Constitution. I hope that extradition to Sweden leads to a release of Assange without extradition to the US.
But regardless of outcome the corruption of the political and judicial processes is clear.