Welcome to BoingBoing…
Wait…
Seriously??
Where is the brand new disposable account single thread well prepared statement Astroturfer at the top of this thread?!!?
Did something break or were you guys all outside smoking?
I always wonder if it is just a US State Department propaganda contractor firm or somebody else.
It’s right that Assange is dealt with, properly and fairly, under Swedish law. No matter what he’s done elsewhere, what he’s accused of is serious, and should be dealt with properly. The idea that Sweden, of all places, is somehow acting as America’s stooge, and he should get a pass from any or all criminal investigation as a result is tinfoil hat stuff. It’s worth noting that, even if Sweden didn’t want Assange, he has now potentially committed criminal offenses under UK law, notably Failing to Surrender, which carries up to 12 months imprisonment.
The statute of limitations thing in Sweden is a big problem. We can’t have Assange just walk free in August.
The UK Government needs to get a court to fine Julian Assange for the full costs of his resisting of his lawful arrest, and then either seize his assets to recover the £9 million, or, if it turns out that he can’t pay after 30 days, throw him in jail in the UK for a similar length of time as would someone who defrauded the taxpayer for £9M without holding public office at the time - (obviously if you’re in office it’s expected you should defraud the taxpayer)
There must be legal minds in the Home Office who can make that stick.
I think if they could throw him in jail without violating every diplomatic treaty ever written, they would have done by now.
That said, the ÂŁ9 million cost seemed a tad spurious. I think it worked out as meaning that ten plods, with an average salary of ÂŁ70,000pa were on continuous duty guarding the embassy. Which sure sounds like overkill.
Does anyone actually still believe that if he’s extradited to Sweden of all places, he’ll be whisked away to America to face execution for espionage? I mean, that’s chemtrail levels of insanity.
Why wouldn’t that happen?
Why wouldn’t it happen in the UK? Why hasn’t it happened in the UK? The US government would have a MUCH easier time extraditing him from the UK than from Sweden. Frankly, I think that the claim that Sweden would allow him to be extradited to the US for possible execution is an insult to all Swedes.
A cockup? Ass covering that slowed the actors down enough to give their target a window of opportunity?
Maybe there was a public-relations-impact-minimizing plan that relied on the original Swedish charges and incarceration procedures. Getting him captive using ordinary criminal procedures.
Then they did not update the plan once their target ran away, and now he’s stuck in an embassy few feet out of their reach.
You trust Swedish government that much?
If your life depends on a government’s promise, you’re in peril.
And they couldn’t do ordinary criminal procedures in the UK? Or like, any other country on earth? You know, Sweden really doesn’t like extraditing people to countries that execute people, right?
But you’re just proving my point about chemtrails. Look, if the US does try to get him out of Sweden, I’ll go protest with you, but he does need to face justice for what he did in Sweden. And he did do it.
Could. Hence the screwup hypothesis.
Yes. However the Swedish govt is a bit too cozy with the US govt to trust them in such high-stake political issue.
Huh?
…but then it will be a bit too late. Protests rarely help much.
Why are you so sure? What do we know other than what the media told us? The whole case is about as airtight as a sieve.
It’d be too politically toxic to extradite Assange to the USA at this stage, since no leader wants to seem that craven to American whim.
I wonder if a prosecution could be brought in England, or in Ecuador for that matter? Just hypothetically, would what Assange is alleged to have done constitute a crime in England or in Ecuador?
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