Julian Assange dragged from Ecuador's embassy in London and arrested

If you’re interested:

If he’s extradited from the UK, they have to finalize the specific charge to be tried on, at the time of extradition.

If they want to add charges after, they have to go through the extradition process again in UK courts first.

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I’m less concerned with what he’s afraid of than whether these women get justice. Every man charged with sexual assault is afraid of being brought to trial and possibly justice.

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Those may be the rules, but I’d imagine that as soon as Assange is in US custody the rules don’t mean anything.

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lloyd-kaufman-yes

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Of course. If the Swedish authorities lay charges, he should face a trial in Sweden.

But, as I’ve said upthread, I don’t believe that the Swedish allegations have much to do with recent events.

Ecuador gave him up to curry favour with the USA, and an American prison is where he’s most probably headed. And it is because he embarrassed the empire, not because of anything else.

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This is separate from whether he ducked out on charges for sexual assault- and justice for these women is no lesser concern.

He didn’t hide in the embassy because there were any other charges existing- just the sexual assault charges from two women.

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Look at what happened to the last journalist that pissed off Saudi Arabia. I think it’s more about that than whether or not he raped someone.

I understand that he’s a very important man - and very important men deserve special rules when it comes to rape.

Strike that and to hell with that.

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Saudi Arabia isn’t pressing for extradition, nor was he or is he there… Nor is Sweden Saudi Arabia, or even the US.

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Not yet. Give it time.

He claimed to be hiding from a sealed US indictment, and it is very likely that such an indictment did exist. American political and military leadership were openly calling for his imprisonment and/or death at the time.

However, he was also sheltering from the Swedish rape allegations. Which, to be clear, are allegations that I believe are most likely true.

Assange is a misogynistic douche. But that isn’t why the USA wants to punish him.

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I don’t care why the US wants to punish him when that consideration is used to shield him from rape charges.

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I suspect that the Swedes might just reopen and if they do, press for dibs. That’s up to the UK of course. Bringing in the Saudis is completely missing the point.

That’s entirely true and I’d much rather him go to sweden to face rape charges instead of to the US.

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Or be in breach of the extradition treaty with the UK. Im not sure thats really gonna bother them much.

But still, now that he has been convicted of breaching his bail in the UK, they do have quite a lot of time for considering which charges the US DoJ wish to open with. Im sure they will give it plenty of thought.

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Edit: To be clear, this is a fucked-up belief of Assange’s, and it’s an example that Assange has had a problem with misogyny for a loooong time.

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Saudi Arabia is still irrelevant, though. Have they even SAID they want him or made any noise about him?

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Oh you’re right… it’s completely irrelevant.

Comparing Sweden to Saudi Arabia is foolishness, both when Assange said it, and when that other poster did it.

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You know what… you’re right. I’ll shut up, since clearly I’m not needed here.

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I don’t want you to shut up! I was agreeing with you!

I added to my posts to be more clear about what I was trying to say. I wasn’t disagreeing with you.

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Countries can’t prosecute people in other countries in any meaningful way without the co-operation of the two governments, as there needs to be a way to enforce the verdict of the court.

The US isn’t trying to prosecute Assange in absentia in Britain. They want to extradite him back to the UK. Otherwise they could have tried him in absentia in Ecuador (in the embassy.)

If the North Koreans wanted to prosecute an American journalist in San Francisco, they would be more likely to go and spray nerve gas on him.